US PIRG: Web coupons “read your mind”
Ed Mierzwinski at U.S. PIRG works on consumer protection issues. He blogs about the issue of consumer tracking and profiling by marketers:
In her New York Times story today “Web Coupons Know a Lot About You, and They Tell,” reporter Stephanie Clifford explains what I call an unregulated surveillance “ecosystem” that I and others predict will lead to unfair pricing:
Excerpt: “While companies once had a slim dossier on each consumer, they now have databases packed with information. And every time a person goes shopping, visits a Web site or buys something, the database gets another entry. [...] The coupon efforts are nascent, but coupon companies say that when they get more data about how people are responding, they can make different offers to different consumers.”
As she notes, U.S. PIRG has joined the Center for Digital Democracy and World Privacy Forum to file a complaint (the release) to the Federal Trade Commission urging immediate review of the latest consumer tracking on the web. The newest technology allows the instantaneous combination of data from on and offline databases to create profiles that we argue could be used to harm consumers. [...]
The story confirms what we have been saying– the firms are targeting unique people without consent, they are using detailed dossiers about them and they have the capability to make different offers to different consumers.
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