DoubleClick Moving to Quell Consumer Privacy Criticism

The Internet’s largest advertising firm vowed Monday to continue tracking consumers by name and address, but said it would launch a massive ad campaign to raise awareness that users can opt out of such data gathering.

DoubleClick Inc.’s campaign is part of a “five-point privacy initiative” designed to quell a rising backlash against the New York-based company, which recently began tying Internet users’ surfing habits to their names after insisting for years that it collected online data only anonymously.

Because DoubleClick is so large and influential, privacy advocates say its new tactic is likely to be followed by others and represents a major threat to anonymity on the Net.

DoubleClick, which has been targeted with lawsuits and complaints to regulators in recent weeks, said it also will appoint a “chief privacy officer” and hire PricewaterhouseCoopers to perform periodic audits of its data collecting. The company maintains that it is only interested in making advertising more relevant for Internet users.

Privacy advocates said the DoubleClick campaign is inadequate. Jason Catlett, president of the watchdog group Junkbusters.org, called the new campaign “window dressing on their previous position, which is that they’re going to profile as much as they feel like unless people opt out.”

But Kevin Ryan, president of DoubleClick, called it an “unprecedented Internet privacy education campaign” and said the company wishes to be seen as a leader in allowing consumers to control how much data is collected from them.

With the new awareness campaign, DoubleClick aims to reach a majority of Internet users through more than 50 million ads over the next few months, Ryan said. The ads will point consumers to a new Web site, https://www.privacychoices.org, where they can learn more about how the company gathers data and opt out of such profiling if they choose.

The privacy dispute stems from a new DoubleClick program called Abacus Online, in which the company is merging consumers’ shopping habits and Web viewing preferences on the Internet with a giant offline database containing records on 80 million households culled from catalog purchases and other sources.

DoubleClick executives say consumers aren’t affected by the new program unless they provide their name and address to participating Web sites. But the company has declined to name those sites, although Ryan said they have already furnished 50,000 to 100,000 names.

DoubleClick crafted its ad campaign to silence critics who complained that few Internet users are even aware of DoubleClick, let alone its new data gathering scheme.

Privacy advocates said Monday that DoubleClick still has not addressed more fundamental concerns, including that it doesn’t allow Internet users access to data collected from them. Privacy groups also argue that DoubleClick should be required to obtain consumers’ permission before gathering data from them, instead of putting the burden on them to “opt out.”

Ryan said the company is considering allowing consumers some access to their data profiles, but must first find a way to verify individuals’ identities. He also said the company employs an “opt out” system because “the majority of people would rather have relevant advertising,” implying that more consumers would be inconvenienced by an “opt in” system.

Privacy advocates scoffed at such arguments and said the company’s new campaign is designed less to benefit consumers than to thwart possible government intervention.

“They’re launching a major ad campaign because they’re trying desperately to avoid legislation,” said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

Rotenberg added that EPIC, which last week filed a complaint with the government accusing DoubleClick of deceptive marketing, will continue to press the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company.