Comments on: New “Do Not Track” Registry List Gaining Momentum

By: Wendy Piersall

Wendy Piersall — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:26:39 +0000

Lizzie – you bring up excellent points I neglected to mention. I know FULL well Target has a full history of my purchases made with my “Red Card”. I don’t mind it because I respect and trust the company and they consistently send me coupons and discounts I can actually use.

With three kids in school, I can assure you I am glad to not receive diaper samples & coupons anymore. And when I do, I think the merchant is not only stupid to waste their money, I think they are stupid to not care enough about me to have paid attention to the data they can so easily get their hands on.

Thanks for the wonderful comment, Lizzie!

By: Lizzie

Lizzie — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:19:20 +0000

Also, to answer one of your questions from a consumer standpoint: No, I don’t see tracking as a problem. I see it as beneficial. If I’m not going to buy a Hummer then I don’t want to see ads for Hummers.

By: Lizzie

Lizzie — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:08:05 +0000

I think that’s a little over reaching. Supermarkets and department stores have been doing tracking like this for years and are storing much more personal information than I could gleen from just looking at my statcounter. If you’ve ever used a point card (such as Giant Eagle’s Advantage Card) then you’ve allowed yourself to be tracked. And yet most people have no qualms about signing up for those extra discounts. Also, credit card companies often sell personal information to marketing firms (we just received a notice yesterday that Sears will be selling our buying history), yet people continue to to charge things.

We’ve long ago thrown our value of personal privacy out the window- voluntarily. This “Do Not Track” thing is too little too late.

By: Internet Mama

Internet Mama — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:57:49 +0000

This seems perfectly ridiculous to me! Having someone call during dinner (which is understandably unacceptable!)is not at all comparable with tracking information used by web publishers. My opinion is that as long as the information is not used to invade my life I’m fine with it. Tracking is an integral part of the Internet and it’s something that actually helps to improve the surfing experience of web users. I can choose to ignore web advertisements, but it’s more difficult to ignore my phone ringing. The only exception I take to online ads are pop-ups, which I do see as interfering with my web experience. My pet hate is pop-ups that show up in front of the content I’m reading, which I then have to close down. iVillage (at least in the UK) is a prime offender here.

By: This Week In SEO - 11/2/07 - TheVanBlog

This Week In SEO - 11/2/07 - TheVanBlog — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:51:42 +0000

[...] New “Do Not Track” Registry List Gaining Momentum [...]

By: Wi

Wi — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:52:49 +0000

I’m not sure how to interpret this information. After all Google for example is also storing a lot of information on his visitors when using the Google search and are storing this for 1,5 years, I believe, here in Europe . I think they actually know more on MY visitors than I do! I don’t think companies like Google and DoubleClick et al are happy with such a move.

I would like to know what the real agenda is from these so-called “consumer-privacy advocates”.

Personally, as a webite owner, a fanatic internet sufer and internetconsumer I’m not bothered by the tracking as I am by telemarketeers calling me during dinner or watching tv.

I gues we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: Steve in PA

Steve in PA — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:26:08 +0000

Another approach to keeping telemarketers away is to sign up at myOculus.com.

The website deals with a pretty straightforward problem—most consumers don’t like telemarketers trying to sell them products that the consumer doesn’t want. The idea with MyOculus.com is that consumers get to choose who contacts them. Plus, consumers can change their choices anytime. If I am in need of siding, I can add that to my list. After I buy siding, I get to remove it. MyOculus.com is a free service. Consumers go to the website and register or re-register for the Do Not Call List. Then, the consumer is given options of more than 350 unique areas of interest from which to select. They then choose the days and times they will allow those calls to be made. They can further choose to be contacted via email or direct mail.

Through the site, consumers can also find guidance for alleviating Internet spam and junk mail. If you sign and request to receive zero marketing calls then you will not get calls. MyOculus.com was conceived in response to requests made by consumers. In August 2004, founder and CEO, Shawn Rohrer, began the process of interviewing and collecting data from consumers. The premise for the business is fairly straightforward: people won’t buy things over the phone that they don’t want. MyOculus.com allows its members to specify their unique areas of interest and the firm commits not to contact them about anything other than the things they’ve specified.

While it is almost impossible to stay invisible to telemarketing efforts, this probably gets you close.

By: Wendy Piersall

Wendy Piersall — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:27:10 +0000

Andy – I’m not sure how personally identifiable they mean. From the AdAge article:

Much of the focus … will be on behavioral targeting, a tactic in which an ad seller can segment consumers into various behavior categories by following their online surfing behavior across multiple sites. For example, a consumer who looks at hybrid vehicles on an auto site can be tagged as such and targeted with a Prius ad as he reads the local newspaper online.

To me, that’s not personally identifiable information – but what do you think?

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:22:07 +0000

Wendy from what I can see, they are homing in on the tracking of personally identifiable information.
The large internet corporations have access to so much information that it is becoming a little scary.

The problem will come when using tracking from a company such as Google. They have access, though they might not use, tracking stats from Google Analytics.

If Google sign up for this, then you might not be able to track activity of people on the do not track list using Google Analytics.

That wouldn’t prevent you using a private tracking script which doesn’t identify personal information.

I am not sure how this will apply to MyBlogLog.