<http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=4438554> Reuters Online Anonymity May Fade Wed Feb 25, 2004 04:18 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online profiling in which consumers' names and addresses are connected to their Internet habits could be in the works as consumers begin to trust the Web more, Kevin Ryan, the chief executive of Internet advertiser DoubleClick, said on Wednesday. "There will be more targeting using this with customers having the ability to opt out," Ryan told the Reuters Technology Media and Telecommunications Summit in New York. While DoubleClick has no immediate plans to link data on specific Internet users to their online behavior at this time, it may come down the road, he said. Ryan suggested that privacy concerns have eased over the years, similar to how many people have relaxed about using their credit cards online. While people don't think twice now about using their credit cards for online purchases, polls showed that Internet users in the late 1990s were more afraid of fraud, he said. "I said the same thing many, many years ago, that I thought privacy concerns would follow the credit card fraud concerns," he said. "What happened was the actual risk wasn't that great. In fact, people started to realize that nothing is 100 percent safe ever." In the early years of Internet advertising, DoubleClick was the subject of several probes into its potential use of information gleaned about Internet users from "cookies" -- small pieces of software that keep track of what Web sites they visit. DoubleClick's 1999 acquisition of direct marketer Abacus Direct was of particular concern for consumer groups worried about corporate abuse of customer profiling. It provided DoubleClick with the ability to combine data such as a person's name and address with information on the Web sites they visit and items they purchase. The company agreed to keep those lines of information separate to address privacy concerns. Abacus maintains a cooperative database that catalog companies and publishers contribute information to about their customers, such as names, addresses and purchase information. The data is collected by household, not individuals, the DoubleClick Web site says. At the time of the merger, the market was not ready for sophisticated targeting tools, Ryan said. "Businesswise, we felt like it didn't make sense to link" those different types of consumer data, he added. Now, the market is "starting to kick in" to make such applications worthwhile for advertisers, according to Ryan. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'