In this post I will try to determine how the Google-DoubleClick merger will expand the companies’ data-gathering powers.
Both companies track users’ IP addresses, so they would be able to combine their sets of data about each individual user. By using DART cookies, DoubleClick’s servers track each user’s IP address (and therefore location), browser type, operating system, and what ads they click on each time the user visits a site that shows ads from DoubleClick. So, DoubleClick has a complete history of which client sites each individual user has visited and when, as well as which ads the user has clicked on. As long as the user has a static IP address, opting out of the DART cookies will not prevent this type of tracking, since the opt-out cookie still tracks the user’s IP address.
The information that Google records includes IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, dates and times of searches, and links and ads clicked on. So Google can compile a list of all the terms a particular user has searched for, as well as which results and ads the user has clicked on.
After the merger, Google-DoubleClick would be able to track, by IP address, all the terms each user has searched for, all the search results the user has clicked on, all the sites that are clients of DoubleClick that the user has visited, and all the DoubleClick and Google ads the user has clicked on. And if the user has a changing IP address, Google-DoubleClick could use cookies as a backup method and still be able to track all of these things by individual user. Although Google-DoubleClick would not be able to link IP addresses to names without help from ISPs, there is a significant danger that their records of information could be personally identifiable. For example, some people google their own names, the weather in their town, or directions from their address to various destinations. Would you be happy knowing that one company has such an extensive record of your online activities and may be able to link it to your name?
Allowing the Google-DoubleClick merger might lead to a slippery slope. I wonder if DoubleClick will still provide the ability to opt out of cookies, or if it will conform to Google’s policy of not allowing users to opt out of having their activities recorded. What if, at some point down the line, Google someday teamed up with an Internet service provider? Then it would be able to match IP addresses to names with no difficulty whatsoever, and Internet activity for the customers of that ISP would lose all anonymity and privacy.
In my next post I will briefly describe the legal protections against the government gaining access to Google’s and DoubleClick’s vast records of information…