Yahoo courting delusional paranoids

From The Mercury News...

Internet giant Yahoo is set to announce today that it will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a move that comes as a congressional committee continues to air concerns about privacy.

Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked Yahoo and 32 other Internet companies to provide more information about the surfing data they collect from Web users and how that data is used to customize advertising.

As many media companies struggle to make money from their Web sites, members of Congress and the industry appear to be in the early stages of a high-stakes negotiation over what kind of advertising ought to be allowed.

While Yahoo's new policy may make it harder for the company to make money from ads - targeted pitches generally fetch higher prices - company officials said offering privacy options could attract more users.

My daughter recently saved up her money and bought an American Girls doll, then began surfing the web to find sites about the dolls. For weeks we saw an overabundance of ads on many sites for American Girl dolls.

My wife's been spending the last week trying to locate homeschool curriculum at a good price, specifically BJU HomeSat books. Again, the ads began to focus on BJU homeschool books.

Was our privacy invaded? No, of course not. Only some who is seriously paranoid would think so. It makes no sense to want to hide your browsing habits, unless, of course, you're going to sites you really shouldn't be going to and you wife or mother may notice an odd trend in advertising. In that case it seems really silly to demand that Yahoo and other sites forego millions in advertising revenues to accommodate your porn habit.

Posted by Danny Carlton at August 9, 2008 6:08 AM