You’ve been browsing the Internet lately for information about carbon emissions to help your daughter with her climate change project at school.
You’ve also done a little shopping in advance of the holidays, buying that more-than-you-really-wanted-to-pay-for digital camera for your spouse.
Now, instead of that usual Staples banner ad on the online site of your local newspaper, you are getting ads about hybrid cars and high-definition TVs.
You may be the recipient of “behavioral” marketing — the practice of examining a person’s activities on the Internet, building a profile of that consumer, and then delivering ads tailored to the individual.
Such “behavioral” marketing or targeting is stirring up controversy these days, in large part because of “deep packet inspection,” a relatively new technology that can be used to examine the content of Internet transmissions rather than capture just a search query or Internet address.
“What’s different about the new model is that ad networks can tap into data streams that ISPs (Internet service providers) have control over and use that information to build a profile (of the person),” said Alissa Cooper of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “In theory, they could be a party to everything you do on the Internet.”
The nonprofit center likens the technique to a phone company listening in on a person’s calls and believes the practice may violate federal wiretapping laws. The technology theoretically can be used to collect sensitive information such as someone’s medical records, religious preference or even private e-mails, although Internet providers insist that’s not their goal.
Traditionally, online advertisers have used “cookies,” small text files placed on the hard disk of someone’s computer, to remember certain information about a customer.
For example, a bank might use a cookie to identify a customer’s account log-in. The information also is used by big search engines such as Google to evaluate…