August 7, 2008
Dipping into the DoubleClick cookie jar
The integration of the Google and DoubleClick advertising systems continues apace, with no sign that Google is pausing to rethink DoubleClick audience-tracking techniques that it once held to be undesirable.
You might remember that when it agreed the acquisition last year Google said it would investigate ways to minimise the invasiveness of the cookies that DoubleClick plants on the computers of internet users who see the ads it serves.
When the deal was consummated earlier this year, though, Google admitted it had got nowhere on this (as we reported here) - though it was still hoping to come up with some solution that would meet the needs of advertisers while minimising the privacy risks of collecting all that data on user behaviour.
That brings us to today’s news, which is that DoubleClick’s cookies are now being included in Google’s content network (which serves display ads to partner websites).
There are clear benefits for advertisers in this. They can limit the number of times a single user sees their ads and see how many different people have seen it. They can also track how many people saw an ad and then visited their website.
But what of internet users? Google promises a better experience, because “they will no longer see the same ad over and over again.”
The message: cookies are good for you. Better get used to it.
I’m happy enough that non-personal information is used to manage the placement of ads. The number of times I see an ad is neither here nor there. So long as this doesn’t descend into the sort of intrusive madness that Phorm are attempting to perpetuate…
Posted by: Peter Dunkley | August 8th, 2008 at 2:20 pm | Report this comment