A primer on behavioral advertising

In recent years and at an accelerating pace, technology and market forces have been fundamentally changing the advertising industry through the collection, storage and use of information. One growing industry, "behavioral advertising," involves the compilation of detailed information about an Internet user?s online activities. Data about how consumers interact with certain sites--which articles they read, which advertisements they click on, the purchases they make, or the length of time they stay on a page, for example--may be collected. The potential breadth and depth of consumer profiles has grown as the largest companies on the Internet have acquired firms that specialize in behavioral data collection

Human rights in the digital age

  As it exists today, the Internet can enable a range of human rights, including freedom of expression, association, education, and development, absent interference by a third party. Where it comes to freedom of expression, the Internet empowers individuals to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas on an unprecedented basis. This US briefing discusses four issues important to human rights in the digital age 1) The Internet’s unique architecture can enable freedom of expression in unprecedented ways 2) Interpreting the right to freedom of expression online presents new questions 3) The Internet’s paradox: emerging challenges to freedom of expression 4) Opportunities for the human rights communit

Rise of telecommuting poses unique privacy and security threats to company networks

Telecommuting, a practice increasingly favored by employers and workers alike, has a great deal to recommend it, but it also raises serious new privacy and security threats that must be addressed in order to prevent this generally beneficial practice from leading to serious privacy and security failures. CDT joined Ernst & Young to survey employers about telecommuting and to identify the best practices and areas of weakness

Online behavioral advertising: discussing the isp-ad network model

The practice of "behavioral advertising" involves the compilation of detailed information about an Internet user\u27s online activities for the purpose of sending them targeted online advertisements. In the traditional behavioral advertising model, online ad networks contract with many different Web site publishers on one side and many different advertisers on the other, placing ads online according to the context of the Web page content and expected audience. However, as behavioral advertising networks seek to create increasingly detailed consumer profiles, companies have begun to form partnerships with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to mine information from the entire stream of an individual customer\u27s Web use for behavioral advertising purposes

Domestic intelligence system grows without controls

This article argues that a vast domestic intelligence system growing in the US without adequate civil liberties protections and that abuses have already occurred due to the magnified risks to privacy of nationwide information sharing networks. The paper calls for closer oversight, more detailed and stringent guidelines