IP Democracy: CDD and PIRG Ask FTC to Probe Online Data Tracking

The Center for Digital Democracy and the Public Interest Research Group have asked the Federal Trade Commission to begin an investigation into the online practices of Internet companies to determining whether their data tracking and mining activities violate consumer privacy.

CDD and PIRG allege that the massive data collection that currently undergirds the Internet advertising and target marketing businesses an “poses significant threats to the privacy—and the personal autonomy—of hundreds of millions in the U.S.”

The groups want the FTC to examine the data gathering practices of Yahoo!, Google and, in particular, Microsoft. In the 50-page filing, Microsoft comes under particular criticism.

No other company displays these unfortunate traits more aggressively than Microsoft, and thus we respectfully request the commission to examine closely all facets of Microsoft’s new approach to data collection via its Digital Advertising Solutions/adCenter marketing apparatus: the MSN Web portal, Windows Live search engine, Hotmail e-mail service, Messenger instant messaging network, Xbox 360 gaming system, Office Online productivity suite, Windows Mobile software platform, Microsoft TV online video service, Spaces blogging service, and Soapbox videos. Especially disturbing is Microsoft’s use of data gleaned from its Hotmail service (which attracts over 30 million users every month) to sharpen its ad-targeting efforts, and those of its adCenter clients. Like Google and Yahoo, then, Microsoft is actively rewriting the rules that govern the online marketplace. It is the FTC’s job to make certain that these rules reflect more than corporate self-interest. The public interest matters, too, and it is the FTC’s responsibility to protect and promote that vital perspective, by issuing an injunction against the most egregious of Microsoft’s and other companies’ new invasive advertising practices…

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 2, 2006 10:16 AM to IP Democracy