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March 20, 2008
NY Law Would Require Web Tracking Notification
A New York state legislator is working on a bill that would curtail how much tracking companies can engage in:
“If it passed, computer users could request that companies like Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft, which routinely keep track of searches and surfing conducted on their own properties, not follow them around. Users would also have to give explicit permission before these companies could link the anonymous searching and surfing data from around the Web to information like their name, address or phone number.
“Because there is no federal legislation on these subjects, Mr. Brodsky's bill — and, to a lesser extent, the one in Connecticut — could set interesting precedents.
“‘A law like this essentially takes some of the gold away from marketers,' said Joseph Turow, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. ‘But it's the right thing to do. Consumers have no idea how much information is being collected about them, and the advertising industry should have to deal with that.‘
Microsoft slays me:
“Microsoft asked Mr. Brodsky to broaden his bill to include all sorts of companies that serve ads around the Web, not just those that show ads based on users' behavior. Such a change would create a bill that more clearly includes Microsoft's chief competitor, Google.
(Link)
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