Report scrutinizes online tracking practices

“[One] reason I think self-regulation is falling apart is that we identified eight companies with privacy policies that might be interpreted to be in conflict with their current business practices,” said Jonathan Mayer, a second-year graduate student in computer science and law, who is on the SSL research team and authored the two reports. “It’s important to note that these are privacy representations that the companies chose to make themselves–beyond what NAI requires.”

Epic Marketplace did not respond to requests for comment but , writing, “this type of data collection occurs in virtually every web transaction.”

According to Mayer’s report, Epic Marketplace uses a number of quick and complex algorithms that determine whether users have visited specific sites, like Groupon and Starbucks. It even searches for specific history, like viewing pages about pregnancy and fertility at the Mayo Clinic or bad credit and debt relief at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

, which also did not respond to requests for comment, requires its members to stop delivering ads targeted to the consumer based on his browsing patterns when he opts out; it does not require them to cease “third-party tracking,” which involves collecting information like the quantitative effectiveness of the ad or whether agencies delivered the number of ads their clients agreed upon. There is no clear consensus between ad agencies, privacy watchdogs or regulators about what tracking means or what opting out entails.

“Tracking refers to recording information so that somebody can link together activities by the same user over time,” said Edward Felten, chief technologist at the FTC.

Peter Eckersley, senior staff technologist at the , a watchdog group that campaigns for public rights in the digital arena, explained the ad industry’s conflict about opting out.

“The industry has two radically different notions of what ‘opt out’ means,” Eckersley said. “One notion is that it means, ‘We’ll stop collecting records about you that we can use to track you’–the other definition is ‘We’ll just stop targeting ads based on the tracking we’ve done.’”

“It would be a mistake to write a piece of legislation that defines third-party tracking,” Eckersley added. “The better way would be to have an ongoing process for revising the definition. We know technology will evolve.”

As for current legislation, “there is no existing law at the federal level that relates to online advertising or third-party tracking,” Felton said.

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The Consumer Reports 1999 Buying Guide

Home appliance buying guide 1996 edition

Consumer Reports

Consumer reports, Buying guide issue

Proceedings ... annual Conference of the American Council on Consumer Interests