U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, are seeking information about the privacy practice of the 15 websites that the Wall Street Journal has identified as installing the most tracking technology on their visitors’ computers.
August 5, 2010
By Julia Angwin
The representatives, who co-chair the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, sent letters on Thursday to 15 websites saying they were “troubled by the findings in this report, which suggest that the price of consumers’ daily use of the Internet increasingly is surrender of their personal information.”
The Wall Street Journal’s investigative report, What They Know, found that the top 50 US. websites installed an average of 64 tracking tools on visitors’ computers. Of those files, an average of 44 were installed by outside companies – the rest were installed by the websites themselves. Many of those so-called third party companies are in the business of tracking consumer behavior across the Internet.
In the letters, the lawmakers asked the websites to detail their privacy practices and those of the tracking technologies installed on visitors’ computers by outside companies. The letters also seek information on the types of technologies used for tracking and the types of data collected, and whether the sites are targeting consumers based on health or financial data.
The letters were sent to the owners of 15 websites: Dictionary.com, MSN.com, Comcast.net, AOL.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Photobucket.com, Answers.com, Careerbuilder.com, MSNBC.com, Live.com, MySpace.com, Yahoo.com, Verizonwireless.com, YP.com and About.com.
A Microsoft spokesman said, “Microsoft takes seriously our responsibility to protect people’s privacy when they are using Microsoft’s products and services. We look forward to reviewing the letter and continuing to work with Representatives Markey and Barton on this important issue.”
A Photobucket spokesman said: “We are committed to consumer privacy. We use the data we collect to help our users see relevant offers from major brands in a safe online community.” An AT&T spokesman said the company is reviewing the letter. A CareerBuilder spokesman said the site had not yet received the letter.
Representatives for the other websites were not immediately available to comment.