FutureNet, DoubleClick and the Failed Prank
By: The Essayist | 28Jan2000
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We are using it to communicate, be entertained, learn new skills, look up reference material, read the news, work, buy and sell, file our tax returns, download software, commune with people of similar interests, cooperate on Open Source projects, and publish our ideas. Some of us practically live here; others -- probably more balanced than I -- use it for at least some of the above. We all know how cool or at least useful the Internet is. You're 'here', reading this; you don't need me to tell you.
FutureNetThe genuine power of the Internet is that it isn't just a network of network of computers swapping data with each other. The 'Net is people. Like any network, the potential grows with each new developer, publisher, programmer that plugs into it. Every day, there is some new resource or clever time wastage available to millions via command line or mouse click.That's the good news. What's the bad news? The 'Net is people, but some people are -- on the balance -- a waste of protoplasm. This technology that we have all plugged into and are utilizing for tasks that -- five or ten years ago -- we accomplished by other, possibly less efficient methods (if at all), has a down side. It allows irresponsible people concerned only with one purpose -- turning you into a consumer of their products -- to do what was impossible before. It's all relatively simple programming. The future of the Internet -- we're calling it FutureNet -- is about commerce and little else. FutureNet is about tracking your preferences and behavior online. FutureNet is about using this information to influence you to buy. Sure, there will still be content. Something interesting has got to keep bringing you back to the Web, but the point will be to sell you something. DoubleClickThe market research firm is called Abacus Direct. This company is proud to be"...the leading information and research provider to the direct marketing industry, managing the nation's largest proprietary database of consumer catalog buying behavior used for target marketing purposes. The Abacus Alliance, a cooperative membership database, contains records from more than 1,100 merchandise catalogs, with more than 2 billion consumer transactions from virtually all U.S. consumer catalog buying households." If you have ever purchased something from a catalog, your name is probably in their database along with what you bought and from whom, how much you paid and how you paid, your billing and mailing addresses, your telephone number and any other personal information you revealed during the transaction. Have you ever filled out a registration card after buying something off the shelf? If so, you are either in the Abacus or some other database. Abacus doesn't just maintain a database; they research this information, i.e., they examine "...past buying behavior and purchasing trends to better target customers..." Market research isn't a new field. It was based on propaganda techniques developed during World War One and used thereafter. The Internet advertising agency is called DoubleClick. They bill themselves as "...the global Internet Advertising Solutions company. We specialize in developing the solutions which make advertising work on the Internet for Web publishers and Web advertisers." Perhaps you've noticed that banner ads are ubiquitous. Many -- possibly most -- that you encounter while surfing the W3 are DoubleClick's ads. In November of 1999, DoubleClick acquired Abacus Direct and access to the database which likely includes your personal information. Unless you have set your browser to disable them, you are already known by the magic cookie entry that DoubleClick has deposited on your hard drive. When DoubleClick recognizes you, you are associated with your profile (if any) already resident in the Abacus database. Have you ever registered with a web site? If not, you've never read more than the front page of the online version of the New York Times, you've never personalized a portal to include the content you'd like to see (i.e., my.yahoo.com), you do not have an web-based email account, and you've never purchased anything over the Web. Over 11,500 web sites have already joined the "DoubleClick Information Alliance". If you've ever registered with one of these sites, any personal information -- including your name and email address -- that you provide to that site is being added to your profile in the Abacus database and shared with other sites that are part of this Alliance. While surfing, not only will the DoubleClick banner ads be targeted at you according to your previous non-Internet shopping habits, but you can expect to begin receiving junk snail mail and catalogs you did not request as the result of the Web sites you visit. The PrankHow goddamn embarrassing! The hell of it is, less than a year ago, we published an editorial on this subject, but it was supposed to be mostly a joke!On the surface, the piece was about how the Internet is becoming an effective tool to influence opinion and human behavior -- particularly influencing what you purchase. We posited a database that contains "information of the stores you had visited and what you had purchased in them" as well as your "hobbies, the newspaper columns you [find] of most interest, the books and magazines on your reading list, and had even ... the opinions you proffer during discussions with your friends". We theorized about what would happen if this hypothetical database fed the advertising to which you were exposed. What would happen if nearly everywhere you went on the Internet, the content was targeted to your specific tastes, with the sole purpose of influencing you to buy or behave a certain way? However, we published it on April Fools' Day. It was titled "Less Real Than You Think". The first few words, "So rapid a folly" and several other bold-faced lines were anagrams of 'April Fools Day' and we referred to "bold-faced anagrammatic blather". We added a bizarre reference to an urban legend about a supercomputer called "The Beast" -- familiar to many an apocalyptic preacher of the 1970s and 80s. The last line referred to finding the "answer to the puzzle." Primarily, we were poking fun at the people who are nervous about the magic cookies that Web sites deposit on their hard drives. We thought a few readers -- familiar with anagrams, alert for inconsistencies, noticing the date it was published -- might 'get' the joke and call our bluff. Nobody ever did, as far as we can tell. In retrospect, there were two reasons why our prank didn't work, one being that it was way too oblique. That's not particularly embarrassing. If we published a puzzle so cryptic and enigmatic that just three people in the world were crazy enough to resolve it -- and it didn't appear to be a puzzle to the rest -- that would be worthwhile. The other reason it didn't work -- the humiliating one -- is that our conclusions (which we didn't believe) have turned out to be much more real than we thought possible. In our favor, they probably weren't true on April Fools' Day 1999, but given the DoubleClick / Abacus Alliance, they are coming true now. One particularly shameful line from the editorial: "...cookies placed by one web site are meaningless to others" is no longer true, since DoubleClick hits your magic cookie file every time one of their banners shows up. The Internet, which was founded on anonymity is no longer quite as anonymous a place to be. What can you do?Well, that depends on how important your privacy is and how much trouble you want to go to.ASAP, you probably want to go to DoubleClick's web site and opt out of their program. This will turn off their entry in your browser's magic cookie. You'd still see their banners but theoretically they won't be targeted at you. You can pay attention to the banners you see on the web sites you visit. Roll your mouse pointer over them and look at the URL that shows up at the bottom of your browser window. If it begins http://ad.doubleclick.net/... you might consider leaving the site and not returning, but at the bare minimum, for gawds sake!, don't buy anything from the site. You probably should be paying conscious attention to the banners anyway. As long as you are conscious of them and the increasing possibility that they have been targeted with your profile in mind (how does that make you feel?), your subconscious (which is the advertiser's ultimate target) is less likely to make you click on it. If the ad represents something you consciously want to check out, go for it. Just don't be manipulated. Begin your education about privacy issues and Internet advertising at Junkbusters. They have a free proxy that will help you remain anonymous while you surf. Check out Zero-Knowledge Systems' Freedom. This package allows users to create pseudonyms to surf, register at sites, and send email. This is the Canadian company that has refused United States Department of Justice requests to build a back door into their product.
The Internet -- like civilization itself -- has the downside of enabling the malicious and irresponsible to act in ways that they wouldn't otherwise be able to get away with. FutureNet is about manipulation and psychological influence, but you don't have to be one of the slaves to propaganda. Also see... |