Who is spying on you?
Tonight while I was working on a project I have noticed that almost every website I visited had the same ad that keeps on showing up on the pages. I got intreaged because I know the company and I do know that it is impossible for this company to have this kind of massive advertizing budget to be able to buy ads on all of these sites and pay all of them with just about $8 Million is sales.
I started to look into this this and finally tracked down the company behind this type of advertising, Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), it is creepy. They have about 50 companies collaborating together to keep track of your web surfing steps. That is the bad news, the good news you can opt out of this kind of tracking/advertizing (assuming the honor system still works) http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
These are the Companies:
- 24/7 Media
- Accuen Inc.
- Adap.tv, Inc.
- AdBrite, Inc.
- AddThis (including XGraph)
- Admeld Inc.
- AdRoll
- Aggregate Knowledge, Inc.
- Akamai Technologies, Inc.
- AOL Advertising
- AppNexus, Inc.
- AudienceScience, Inc.
- Batanga Network
- Bizo
- Break Media
- Brightroll, Inc.
- Brilig, a division of Merkle
- Burst Media Corporation
- Casale Media
- Chango, Inc.
- ChoiceStream, Inc.
- CoreAudience (formerly RedAril)
- Cox Digital Solutions
- Criteo
- DataXu Inc.
- Datonics (formerly AlmondNet Data Division)
- Dedicated Media
- FetchBack Inc
- Google Inc.
- IDG TechNetwork
- IgnitionOne Inc.
- Invite Media
- MaxPoint Interactive, Inc.
- Media Innovation Group (MIG)
- Media6Degrees
- MediaMath, Inc.
- Microsoft Advertising
- Netmining LLC
- Proclivity Media, Inc.
- PubMatic
- RadiumOne
- Rocket Fuel Inc.
- ShareThis
- Tribal Fusion
- TubeMogul, Inc.
- Turn, Inc.
- Undertone
- Yahoo! (now including Genome)
- [x+1]
Exact text from the website that was tracking me
Wondering why you saw a display advertisement, provided by FetchBack?
FetchBack is a service provider that works with companies to show advertisements to consumers who previously visited their Website. This type of online advertising is called Retargeting. When you visited one of our client’s websites, a text file (called a cookie) was placed on your internet browser. This text file tells sites that you visit online to show you an ad from our client, versus another ad. These are called targeted ads as they are targeted specifically to you, and targeted ads make your time spent on the internet customized to your interests.
Our client’s website that is Retargeting you is http://www.infusionsoft.com. You can see FetchBack’s privacy policy by visiting this page: http://fetchback.com/privacy-policy/ Retargeting is an optional service. If you do not want to be Retargeted by FetchBack, you can opt-out here: Opt-Out
Note: You will also need to opt-out from each computer or browser you use to access the internet.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to contact FetchBack at customerservice@fetchback.com
Also from NAI opt out page:
Important things to remember about the choices you make on this page:
- These opt outs apply to Online Behavioral Advertising by NAI member companies. You will still receive other types of online advertising from participating companies, and the Web sites you visit may still collect information for other purposes.
- The opt-out choices you select are stored in opt-out cookies only in this browser. You should separately set your preferences for other browsers or computers you may use. Deleting browser cookies can remove your opt out preferences, so you should visit this page periodically to review your preferences, or update to include new participating companies.
- Opting out using the NAI Opt-out Tool should not affect other services provided by NAI members that rely on cookies, such as email or photo-hosting. Click here for more information.
- The NAI has adopted a policy that all NAI member companies set an opt-out cookie with a minimum lifespan of five years. Click here for more information.
This makes me think, privacy is dead. Humm ….