The New York Times this weekend featured an editorial by Adam Cohen on erosions of user privacy caused by commercial behavioral tracking. While behavioral tracking (primarily through the use of cookies attached to web pages or to display ads) is not inherently bad, it’s important that companies employing tracking properly disclose what they’re doing in their privacy policies and user agreements.
Cohen notes that the scope of information a company can now learn about its users is larger than many users realize:
Web sites can charge a premium if they are able to tell the maker of an expensive sports car that its ads will appear on Web pages clicked on by upper-income, middle-aged men.
The information, however, gets a lot more specific than age and gender — and more sensitive. Tech companies can keep track of when a particular Internet user looks up Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, visits adult Web sites, buys cancer drugs online or participates in anti-government discussion groups.
Cohen also points out that in many cases, users don’t have enough information about how their personal tracking records will be used:
The bigger issue is the digital dossiers that tech companies can compile. Some companies have promised to keep data confidential, or to obscure it so it cannot be traced back to individuals. But it’s hard to know what a particular company’s policy is, and there are too many to keep track of. And privacy policies can be changed at any time.
Companies can help by making sure their privacy policies are easy to find and understand, and that these policies fully disclose what data is being tracked and how it is being handled after it is collected. StopBadware’s guidelines are a great place to start for pointers on best practices for disclosure.
For more information about cookies and their role in behavioral tracking and privacy, check out the videos from our Cookie Crumbles Contest last fall.
