Do-Not-Track Movement Is Drawing Advertisers’ Fire

Natasha Singer, reporting for the NYT:

“If we do away with this relevant advertising, we are going to make the Internet less diverse, less economically successful, and frankly, less interesting,” says Mike Zaneis, the general counsel for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an industry group.

Utter and complete bullshit. TV doesn’t track you, and with a few exceptions like HBO, it’s completely advertising driven. Print media doesn’t track you, and it’s been primarily advertising-driven for centuries.

Update: Lessien disputes my argument that “TV doesn’t track you”:

Not true. Cable boxes are data treasure troves.

Good point. But even so, I don’t see how anyone could argue that such tracking is necessary for advertising. And it certainly wasn’t the case for most of the TV industry’s history, which predates digital cable boxes.

★ Tuesday, 16 October 2012