DISCLAIMER: Logging other people's keystrokes or breaking
into other people's computer without their permission can
be considered illegal by the courts of many countries.
The monitoring software reviewed here is ONLY for authorized
system administrators and/or owners of computers.
We assume no liability and are not responsible for any misuse
or damage caused by the keylogging software. The end user of
this software is obliged to obey all applicable local, state,
federal and other laws in his country of residence.
November 02, 2006
Groups call for investigation of Microsoft ad service
Two consumer advocacy groups have filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), saying Microsoft Corp. and other Web-based companies are using ‘unfair and deceptive’ business practices to collect data about their customers.
The complaint by The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), filed Wednesday, asks the FTC to investigate Microsoft's use of customer data collection in its Web advertising service, called adCenter. The adCenter service targets customers with contextual advertising based on their Web habits.
But CDD and US PIRG said Microsoft's tracking of Web user habits goes too far. ‘Microsoft has embarked on a wide-ranging data collection and targeting scheme that is deceptive and unfair to millions of users,’ the groups said in their complaint to the FTC.
CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester called on the FTC to shut down new forms of online data collection until consumer safeguards are in place. ‘Consumers have the right to have the option to opt in [to data collection],’ he said.
Microsoft, in a statement, said it is committed to protecting customer privacy. The company offers customers a ‘clear, understandable’ privacy policy, and customer control is important to Microsoft, the statement said.
‘From what we have read, they have got it all wrong,’ Mike Hintze, Microsoft's senior attorney for privacy, said in the statement. ‘We are very open with consumers about our privacy policies and practices across all of our online services and all of our advertising products. We would be happy to brief the Center for Digital Democracy and others about how adCenter works.’
But customers don't have an easy way to opt out of data collection, Chester said. Even when customer Web habits aren't linked with a name, they often can be identified by their Web searches or other Web habits, he added. After AOL LLC in August released private search results of thousands of its subscribers, news organizations were able to identify individual users, even though their names weren't released by AOL.
Chester called online data collection ‘pervasive and ubiquitous’ and said the two groups focused first on Microsoft because it has told potential advertisers its data collection techniques are better than those used by rivals such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Source: ITworld.com
All news for August, 2008
All news for 2008 year
All news for 2007 year
All news for 2006 year
All news for 2005 year
All news for 2004 year
DONATION: Keylogger.org is an independent research
project supported by a team of enthusiasts. If you find this
project useful or would like to help foster its continued
development please consider making a donation using PayPal`s
online secure payment service. A PayPal account is not required.
All major credit cards are accepted (MasterCard/Eurocard,
Visa/Delta/Electron, American Express, Switch/Maestro, Solo).
Simply click the button below.
Any amount would be useful and appreciated!
Thanks in advance for your support!
|
