Voices

How and Why We Track: Confessions of an Ad “Tracking” Company

By most estimates, the first online ad appeared roughly 20 years ago. As a technology, cookies have been used for almost as long.
cforcookie380

News Byte

Mozilla to Block Third-Party Cookies in Firefox

The Mozilla Foundation, makers of the popular Firefox Web browser, will begin to block third-party advertising cookies by default, a move sure to upset online advertisers who rely on behavioral audience tracking to better serve online ads. The move is in line with that of Apple’s Safari, which has blocked third-party cookies for a long time, yet diverges from Google’s Chrome browser, which allows cookies of all types.

Enliken Wants to Help You Sell Your Browsing Data to Your Favorite Content Provider

Privacy nuts, we’ll see you in the comments section.
Enlikenpaywithdata

In Fight Over Largest Fine Ever, FTC Commissioners Disagreed Over Whether Google Should Admit Fault

As expected, Google will pay $22.5 million to settle with the FTC over violating its October 2011 privacy settlement.
safari_apple

Public Shaming as Regulation: Google’s Safari Bypass and the FTC

How Google’s Safari bypass incident could show the future of tech regulation.
shame_on_you

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz on Privacy, Do Not Track, Facebook and Google (Video)

Privacy policies should be like the nutrition guide on cereal boxes, says FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.
EQ7G9929-M

News Byte

Twitter Tailors Your “Who to Follow List,” but Only if You Want It

Twitter began rolling out tailored suggestions for users to follow on Thursday, aiming to give Twitter newcomers better direction in learning how to navigate the somewhat abstruse microblogging platform. The suggestions stem from a tracking cookie Twitter sends to new users, allowing the company to see sites visited within the past 10 days. Twitter then uses that information to recommend who to follow. Users can also opt out of this service.

Voices

Google in New Privacy Probes

Regulators in the U.S. and European Union are investigating Google Inc. for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Web browser, according to people familiar with the investigations. Google stopped the practice last month after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal.

News Byte

Former Dow Jones Digital Boss Gordon McLeod Lands at Krux

Gordon McLeod, the former head of Dow Jones’s digital publications, has a new job at an ad tech start-up. He’s now president at Krux, a two-year-old “data management platform” that helps publishers control “cookie” data that tracks Web surfers’ movements. Last fall, Krux raised $11 million in a round led by Accel and IDG. McLeod left News Corp.’s Dow Jones, where he oversaw business operations for multiple sites, including this one, in 2010.

Social Ad Guys 33Across Buy Copy/Paste Guys Tynt

An ad tech linkup that makes sense.
magnifying glass