“DoubleClick Inc., the Internet advertising firm whose methods
for gathering personal data have come under scrutiny, says it
will hold off on a plan to add people’s names and addresses to
its ad-tracking program until the government and industry agree on
privacy standards.”
“DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK), which places advertising banners on
Web sites and keeps track of who views them, is facing inquiries by
the Federal Trade Commission as well as the attorneys general of
New York and Michigan. It has also alarmed some privacy advocates,
who are concerned that its activities give its clients too much
access to personal information of unsuspecting Web users.”
“[DoubleClick CEO Kevin] O’Connor admitted that he had ‘made a
mistake by planning to merge names with anonymous user activity
across Web sites’ but emphasized that the company had never
implemented the plan.”