Several online privacy groups, including Junkbusters Corp. and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are
raising red flags about the acquisition of Abacus Direct Corp. by ad network DoubleClick Inc.
The privacy groups said they sent an open letter
to the company, the Federal Trade Commission and some members of Congress.
“By synchronizing cookies with name and address from e-mail, registrations and e-commerce transactions, the
merged company would have a surveillance database of Orwellian proportions,” said Junkbusters President Jason Catlett.
Abacus Direct has stored data on more than 2.4 billion
consumer purchases through 1,100 catalogs. DoubleClick wants to use that
information along with its own data to deliver targeted ads to consumers, and
is willing to pony up more than $800 million in stock for the privilege.
The privacy groups said the proposed combination amounts to a “surveillance
machine of unprecedented breadth and depth, posing unacceptable privacy
dangers to the public. . .The ads will be watching the consumers, reporting
their individual movements through cyberspace, on demand to potentially
thousands of organizations.”
DoubleClick President Kevin Ryan told at this location , Ryan said.
Junkbusters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center both also recently
protested Intel Corp.’s plans to include a serial
number on its Pentium III microprocessor. Intel bowed to the pressure by
changing the feature so it’s turned off unless a user activates it manually.
Could the whole matter be resolved in an opt-in manner? Rosalind Resnick,
president of e-mail marketing firm NetCreations Inc., thinks the answer may
be yes.
“While we believe that an Abacus for the Web presents tremendous
opportunities for Internet marketers to reach their customers more
effectively, we also believe that such a database needs to be developed in an
opt-in manner that respects consumer privacy and choice.”