U.C. San Diego researchers have discovered that some ad codes are tracking user history far beyond what was previously believed - and not just shady sites.
This 'history sniffing' was found on large sites like Morningstar.com and Newsmax.com, among others. The culprit in those cases - ad-targeting company Interclick - admitted to being the tracking code on those sites.
Interclick said its new homegrown code
was part of an eight-month experiment that the sites weren't aware of. The New York company said it stopped using the technique in October because it wasn't successful in helping match advertisers to groups of Internet users.
Obviously an ad-targeting company doing new experimentation and not making its publishers aware, so they get in the news as malware creepy sites, is a sign of a shoddy corporate culture but is it persistent enough to warrant regulation?
While the FCC does not belong in Internet regulation, yet keep trying to worm their way in, this lends credibility to efforts for a "Do Not Track" tool under consideration. In business, if reputable companies don't find a way to clean up the reputation of their industry, the government will do it for them.
