The Legality and Ethics of Internet Advertising
ABSTRACT: Recently, DoubleClick.com, one of the world’s premier Internet advertising firms was at the center of a Federal Trade Commission investigation on privacy. Consumer privacy advocates have charged the company with infringing on the privacy of websurfers because of the aggressive means it uses to gather data for profit. This paper discusses the legal and moral issues surrounding these tactics. Were the company’s aggressive tactics legally permissible? Were they ethical? Companies such as DoubleClick need to inform the websurfer that he/she is being monitored.
The world of the Internet uses advertising as its central driving force. Internet start-up companies have
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If you give your name and address to a website that is a client of DoubleClick, then DoubleClick could link your previously anonymous web browsing to you personally. To gain even more access to information about consumers, DoubleClick recently acquired Abacus Direct2. Abacus Direct is the holder of the US's largest direct mail data list, it has information on an estimated 88 million American households. It has consumers' names, addresses, and phone numbers, along with information on their shopping and financial habits. Early in the year 2000, DoubleClick began merging the two databases. When this happened different consumer and privacy advocacy groups sounded an alarm3. They had always been opposed to DoubleClick's practices, but DoubleClick's last step was too much.
Different lawsuits were brought to the courts alleging violations of consumer's privacy4. On February 17 of last year, the Federal Trade Commission began doing an inquiry into the business practices of DoubleClick. At around the same time, the Michigan state attorney charged the company with violating the consumer protection laws. Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan state attorney, said that planting cookies on a person’s hard drive without their knowledge or consent was illegal5. She compared the whole practice to the wire-tapping and surveillance of an individual. In its own defense, DoubleClick contends that the privacy of users is protected because their
He then uses ethos by discussing his role as “an operator of a small government-transparency Web site,” who does good for his site’s visitors when there is enough money to do so. Harper is a founding member of the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security and an expert in the legal complications surrounding new technologies. He offers us this role to persuade readers to perceive him as a trustworthy person. Harper begins his essay by stating that if you surf the Web, you are part of the information economy. His essay, which was published in the Wall Street Journal, argues that the business models and opportunities used to customize advertising justifies the use of data mining. Because of advertising and the use of cookies, which are files used to track users in order to customize their experiences, companies such as Google are able to spend millions of dollars on free
Time Newspaper has learnt that it's not surprising that Internet companies have electronic dossiers that contain personal information for individuals who subscribe to the websites. Generally, these companies have obtained the information from people based on individual's visit to the website, sent and received emails, tagged photos, and searches people carry out. However, the extent of personal information known by these Internet companies has remained largely unknown as well who they provide and/or sell this information to. However, Internet companies continue to gather lots of personal information from different people who focus on carrying out online activities on a daily basis. Currently, it's estimated that these firms gather personal information from nearly 500 million users but are hesitant to provide this information to the other firms or individuals. As their unwillingness to share has attracted significant congressional inquiry, things could finally change in California following the introduction of a bill that may force companies to disclose the kind of personal information they have gathered and how this information is being used.
In the essay, “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty” by Nicholas Carr, he argues the importance of privacy when one is surfing the web. Carr writes how companies personalize ads they provide on the internet based on our personal information. We are not aware of the consequences and the information we disclose about ourselves on the internet. Everything we do on the internet is recorded and stored. Nicholas Carr uses ethos and counter argument/refutation to express to his audience that their privacy is being violated.
Greenemeier starts by addressing, the cost of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and other Internet company’s by the exchange of information for advertising revenue. Most internet users generally accept this trade-off of private data, which is when one clicks they agree to the terms and conditions. He says the dark side of bartering personal data, is that the internet user has no way to track who has control of their information. When visiting sites such as clothing and shoe stores, the data is read that one maybe interested in such stores. If one was to close the browser containing the store catalog, the next social media and/or website will have advertising specific to what one researched at the previous store. This information collection allows for easier ad revenue for the producers, because each click on the ads allows for a small percent of profits from the website that one had come from. Greenemeier also talks about five ways one can protect them from information
Something similar is happening with our cyber information. Internet service providers can collect information from users such as browsing information, location, financial, health information, etc. and sell that information to marketing and advertisement agencies. Sites such as Facebook can also track user’s online activity and sell that information to advertisers and third-party sites, an example of this is anytime a user logs into a site using Facebook it allows that company to track their online activity. Ultimately, people should be made aware of what is happening with their personal
But the revenue from web page advertisements is also integral to the business models of many tech companies,
Ans.1. while surfing internet, I detected that the ads square measure closely connected to the pages I visited or the things I purchased in past. I feel that they 're making an attempt to hit the correct client World Health Organization did same activity in past. My all activities like locations, sites I surfed etc. recorded and basis thereon information solely they counsel me these ads. They keep record of my searched words and imply them in my future looking. It’s proved to be helpful for the advertiser because it is totally centered on bound parameters that customers stuffed in his past. Web privacy involves the right or mandate of personal
In Ricardo Bilton’s article “What Would Kant Do? Ad Blocking is a Problem, but It’s Ethical,” Bilton shows an ethical dilemma between publishers and internet users, about ad blocking. Publishers are like to withdraw the ethical argument when discussing the damages of ad blocking, but they still connect business with ad tech companies and ad networks. And internet users are want to clean out all advertisings while they reading a website and watching a video. Although publishers make how many businesses with other companies, users are still like to install an ad blocker because it helps reader operating conveniently, watching a video smoothly, and clean all the “stuff” in websites.
To design, produce, and make profit on such a spyware tool is obviously unethical. The tool presents the possibilities of privacy encroachment and suppression of freedom of expression. The ethical concerns are not novel, and are involved in almost all means of communications, such as phone call interceptions, but the extensive collection by
In his article, “Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and FTC Enforcement: Broadening Unfairness Regulation for a New Era,” G.S. Hans, a professor at University of Michigan Law School, points out, “Because Google collects, collates, and retains so much raw data–both regarding Internet search queries and its users’ behavior within Google’s suite of sites–it ranks as one of the most highly valued Internet companies, with a current stock price of over $650 per share” (175). It clearly indicates that the world’s most used search engine of Google is making too much profit by selling consumer data to various advertising companies, and these companies sell their products back to consumers to achieve their goal. So, consumers are at the privacy theft, and Google is one who makes a large amount of money out of this circular process. Alex Radford, a general manager of digital media at Aegis Media New Zealand, does not like Google’s money making advertising business. He likes half of Google which is helpful for people, but does not like its money-making game. In his article, “Goooogle DON't BE EVIL?” Radford certainly expresses his thoughts about Google’s advertising game. Google’s dominance in advertising field is unbelievable. According to Radford, Google is a leading business company, a company which owns about ninety percent of the global search business in today’s advertising era . Again, Radford believes
The fiercely competitive businesses of advertising and marketing were born. Today those businesses alone are worth billions and even trillions of dollars. They
The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.
In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in
For the advertising revenue have starting to share progressively with internet publishing during year 1997 and the proportion of the total advertising volume had kept increasing comparing with 1997 and 2005 data, there
As we already discussed that Advertising is a large topic to describe. This is considered as the best way to persuade regarding anything to the general people. Proper way of advertising will lead to create awareness in a particular society. On the other hand, adopting a bad way of advertising may manipulate the information and create some sort of dilemma among the people in the society which is not a good side at all. When we attach ethics with advertising then it might sound something different. It’s a broader way of advertisements in a way that reflects the moral standards and norms. It’s a moral duty of an individual to keep in mind and be aware of regarding the ethical issues when it comes to advertisement.