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Technology Stocks : DoubleClick Inc (DCLK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (2713)	11/27/1999 11:45:00 AM
From: buckhead26	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2902

OK, Here is the link again. forbes.com Also, here is a cut and paste of the first page. Big Brother, Big Bucks 11/25/99 By Marius Meland Imagine if someone followed you around all day long, taking detailed notes about where you were going, what you were doing and what you were spending. What may sound like an Orwellian nightmare is unfolding right now on the Internet. While their intention may be less sinister than the Ministry of Truth's, online advertisers have a tool Big Brother could never have imagined: the Internet. In an effort to create advertising that is more narrowly targeted, they are collecting personal information about practically everyone surfing the Internet. Few web surfers are aware that they leave big footprints when they jump from web site to web site. While most content providers put their privacy policy on their web sites, these are usually linked in small font at the bottom of the home page. And if you're like most people, you probably never even bother to click the link and investigate exactly what kind of information you are handing over. In theory, you have a choice. You can turn off the "cookies" that store information about you on your hard drive. But anyone who's ever taken this radical step will tell you that life without cookies is like driving down a freeway with a stop sign every hundred yards. In the end, most people surrender to the data collectors, hoping that they'll exercise self-control. The online advertising industry boasts that it can collect a mind-blowing range of information about you. One company, CMGI's (nasdaq: CMGI) Engage (nasdaq: ENGA), which collects anonymous information, claims that it can break profiles down into as many as 800 different interest categories. Engage says it has imposed restrictions on the kind of information it gathers, avoiding, for instance, data on religion, health, sexual interests and ethnic backgrounds. But others haven't committed themselves to such restrictions, and there's no reason (legally, at least) why U.S. advertising firms couldn't collect highly sensitive personal information about you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertising firms argue that "online profiling" will make most consumers happier because they will be exposed to relevant ads rather than "waste." But the road to targeted advertising is littered with landmines. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suppose, if you will, that online advertisers knew everything there is to know about consumers. In such a world, vegetarians would never see an ad from Oscar Mayer. Advertisers would pay top dollar for targeted ads because they would greatly improve the return on their investment. And most consumers would be happier because they would be exposed to relevant ads rather than "waste," according to a Columbia University survey paid for by--you guessed it--an advertising network, DoubleClick (nasdaq: DCLK). But the road to targeted advertising is littered with landmines. While the biggest obstacle may be political resistance, especially in Europe, a more immediate problem will be technological hurdles. Those hurdles are so great, in fact, that it could easily be years before most web ads are targeted directly to the consumer. In the end, no one knows if targeted advertising will ever live up to its promise. Four companies--DoubleClick, Engage, 24/7 Media (nasdaq: TFSM) and Excite@Home's (nasdaq: ATHM) MatchLogic--are hoping to dominate online profiling. They have chosen vastly different approaches to the way they collect information about web surfers: Engage is the only company that has taken a consistent and aggressive stance against collecting identifiable information. 24/7 Media is unabashedly collecting names, addresses and other identifiable information. MatchLogic has pursued a hybrid model, separating its anonymous business from its identifiable profiles. DoubleClick is staging an about-face, preparing to collect identifiable information after collecting anonymous profiles for years. (See table.) Next page... top mynote:The orig. link must not have worked since it was some kind of caching/mirror image from Hotmail inbox delivery of Forbes daily newsletter. Won't do that again.