War Against the Web

Mr. Rothenberg fails to address the central question regarding online advertising. The call for regulation is designed to ensure individuals control their data while on the Internet or using their mobile phones—not companies such as Google, Microsoft, and AOL. Public interest groups are not opposed to interactive marketing: indeed, we recognize it as a key source of funds for online publishing. But Mr. Rothenberg’s members have created a commercial surveillance system that rivals the NSA—tracking and analyzing our every move while on the Internet, all so we can be encouraged to behave favorably to some marketing message. Responsible ad industry leaders will seriously address the privacy threats created by the interactive marketing apparatus—and not hide behind self-serving claims that unless our privacy is lost, we won’t have a robust digital medium. We have already identified problems related to online targeting and data collection with pharma, subprime mortgages, and junk food marketing aimed at children, for example. We urge readers to review the USPIRG/CDD FTC complaints at http://www.democraticmedia.org and also review digitalads.org