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Is 37 Signals Selling Behavioral Targeting Data?
- tptacek 17y agoCan someone explain how this is any weirder than 37signals using Google to serve ads? I'm not expressing an opinion, I just don't know what this post is trying to say.
- brown9-2 17y agoOr any weirder than using Google Analytics...
- mrshoe 17y agoI honestly can't tell. The confusing nature of the post leads me to believe it's FUD, especially since the call to action at the end encourages me to use their product to protect me from the supposed evil.
- dcancel 17y agoSee above for my full comments but in short the difference here is that Media6 Degrees collects your behavioral data ties it with your social graph (your friends) data packages it up and resells it to other ad networks to target you.
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoIt feels like there should be some commas in your sentence.
- dannyr 17y agoIt looks like the guy is using it to pitch his product.
- dcancel 17y agoThis is the author of Ghostery. Sorry if it came off that way that is not my intent. I am not pitching my "free" product. The difference here is that Media6 Degrees collects your behavioral data ties it with your social graph (your friends) data packages it up and resells it to other ad networks to target you. Google Analytics data doesn't get sold to 3rd parties nor is it used by AdWords/AdSense to target ads at you (at least that is Google's claim). Sorry if this came off as an ad, its not.
- buugs 17y agoI liked it as an ad, it actually made me interested in your product to see what you found using it. Much better than a website with an about page :)
- sunir 17y agoThank you for this. It would be valuable if you could please ask them for their side and follow up with another post explaining if they in the right or wrong.
- brown9-2 17y agoHow do they tie this to your "social graph"?
- blasdel 17y agoYou can insert hidden anchor tags into the DOM and then use an a:visited selector to detect visited URLs.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y agoIt may have to do with the ad network they are founders of- thedeck
- dcancel 17y agoThought that might be the case but couldn't find it on any other "Deck" ad sites. Interesting
- sunir 17y agoIf you were truly legit you would have first asked them. I flagged this post.
- dcancel 17y agoHuh? I should ask every site on the internet that is tracking your behavioral information why they're doing it? I think we the users should decide what info gets shared with who. I also think we have the right as their user to publicly call them on questionable practices. I'm a fan of their products too, just not a fanboy, there's a difference.
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoI should ask every site on the internet that is tracking your behavioral information why they're doing it? If you're publicly accusing them of doing so, and doing so for monetary gain, then yeah, it does seem like some measure of journalistic integrity would require at least a half-assed attempt at getting the other side of the story. Even TechCrunch shoots out an email so they can say that they asked the company what their side is. If you're really searching for the truth, you should have approached them and asked, especially since your title is a question and you have this line in your post: I can’t figure out why 37 Signals would be selling this information to ad networks. Your post is making an implication that something nefarious is going on, without actually having the guts to come out and say it. Instead, you pretend to be confused, and state that you're really not sure what's going on. If that's actually the case, why not just ask them? As it is, it appears that you think you do know what's going on, you want to stir the pot and get some publicity for your product, and by keeping it vague, you protect yourself if you're wrong.
- dcancel 17y agoRyan, Not interested in a flamewar but happy to follow-up and clarify. 1. I'm not a journalist. 2. The fact that Media6 Degrees, a behavorial targeter is on their site is binary. Look at the source, it's there, pretty simple. 3. See #2 for the truth. 4. Depends on your world view. For people who don't want to be targeted by behavioral ad networks this is nefarious. For those who don't care it isn't. 5. I couldn't care less about "getting publicity" for my product. It's free and I don't need the publicity.
- jasonfried 17y agoNo, we are not selling behavioral targeting data - or any other data - about our visitors to anyone. Our Product Blog (which is referenced in the screenshot) is hosted on Typepad. It looks like Typepad injects javascript from Quantcast and cdn.media6degrees.com at the bottom of Typepad-hosted pages. This appears to be related to Typepad's internal analytics reporting. More info here: http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1162 http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/s... Check out some other Typepad hosted blogs (http://www.avc.com http://www.avc.com, for example) and you'll see the same code. In fact, I can't seem to find a Typepad-powered blog that doesn't have this code. Here's a long list: http://featured.typepad.com http://featured.typepad.com This code appears to be what Ghostery is picking up and calling out.
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- jrockway 17y agoUh oh, actual facts? Damn it, I just bought a pitchfork and really wanted to use it for something!
- caffeine 17y agoWarning! Entering the fact-free zone. Seriously, it's impolite to publish articles that are angry accusations without (a) consulting the accused and (b) limiting one's accusations to the evidence at hand. Your article makes it sound like they collect confidential data from their apps and sell it for money. Can't understand why so many people would upvote this.
- jrockway 17y agoClearly you know nothing about blogging! Letting facts get in the way of a hate session is simply not profitable!