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RE: cookies and privacy

Michael Brennen[SMTP:mbrennen@fni.com] wrote:
>
>I wonder if collecting marketing data isn't perceived so differently that
>the larger national media will pass on it.  After all, they are in the
>marketing game themselves and dearly love to collect all kinds of things
>about their subscribers / viewers / readers / audience. They probably wish
>they could collect as much as doubleclick.
>
>Someone sneaking an email address from a browser is a specific act on a
>specific piece of personal information, and people react to that because
>it is clearly a privacy issue.  doubleclick's information collection,
>though potentially far more complete, is not perceived the same way.  If
>the media doesn't pick up on this, who will?  Those that are Internet
>aware will get around it; the majority just won't know and may not care. 

Maybe the American Marketing Association and the Market Research
Council. Both have a Code of Ethics for member organizations conducting
market research.

Unfortunately, technology has eclipsed policy and procedure. The Market
Research Council's Code of Ethics is a position paper that was adopted
as an official position of the Market Research Council in July 1968,
so it is a little too old to refer to the Internet. (It may have been
updated; the most recent reference material I had easy access to was
dated 1991.) The most Internet relevant section(s) would be:

"Researchers should recognize that the public has no obligation to
cooperate in a study.
	...
"One of the greatest invasions of the privacy of respondents is through
the use of research techniques such as hidden microphones and cameras.
When such a research technique has been used, a respondent should be told
and, if the respondent requests it, any portion of the interview that
serves to identify the respondent should be deleted."

Note that this (and other respondent rights suggested by Alice M. Tybout
and Gerald Zaltman in "Ethics in Marketing Research: Their Practical
Relevance," Journal of Marketing Research, November 1974) give the right
to decline from the study and the option of anonymity. This, however,
would not deny the hidden collection of cookies, just the association of a
specific cookie jar with a specific person without their permission.

Neither organization's position, however, carries any weight of law,
though respondent rights were incorporated in the Privacy Act with
respect to federal government related projects.

William Curtiss
The words, they are free; its their nature to be
The opinions expressed: belong only to me.