Media Trends Raise Privacy Issues

Apr 27th, 2009 • Posted in: News

Congress says it will keep an eye on cable companies as they roll out target ads; Web founder warns of privacy intrusion; privacy advocates question propriety of banking software

VARIOUS DATELINES
Ethics and law were attempting to keep pace with technology last week. Among the stories:

• Congress is putting cable-TV companies on notice about the privacy implications of targeted advertising. The Associated Press reports that cable operators are preparing to roll out target ads delivered to individual viewers based on data gathered by the user’s set-top cable box. Lawmakers say they’re worried about the intrusiveness related to advertising to customers based on what they are watching. Industry executives told a House panel that they will be conscious of privacy issues, notes the AP.
• The man credited with founding the World Wide Web last week warned that targeted advertising based on Web searches, a major component of the financial engine that currently propels the Web, threatens privacy and should be opposed. Tim Berners-Lee told a conference in Madrid that he wants assurances that “when I click on a link it is between me and the Web, and the Internet service provider is not going to immediately characterize me in different categories for advertising or insurance of for government use,” reports the Agence France-Presse. Berners-Lee maintained that targeted advertising should be based on cumulative browsing habits rather than the results of one search or one trip to a particular page.
• A common technology used to authenticate computers used in online banking is a threat to consumer privacy, according to a civil liberties advocate speaking at a computer-security forum, reports tech network CNET. Jennifer Granick, a lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warns that a type of banking software — one that puts a unique identifier on the customer’s computer or monitors the individual characteristics of the device’s installed software and physical location — could be used to track consumer behavior and produces data that could be combined with other information to develop intrusive profiles. Granick says there is “very little privacy protection in the United States for this type of information.” A spokesman for one of the companies providing the software said it is very “privacy friendly” and is useful in preventing fraud, notes CNET.

Sources: AP, Apr. 24 — CNET, Apr. 24 — AFP, Apr. 24.

For more information, see: Related Newsline Commentary, Apr. 20 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 13 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 13 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 6 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 16.

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