When we saw Esther Dyson’s announcement on Huffington Post a few weeks ago proposing a contest encouraging the public to submit videos focused on data-collecting cookies and privacy [for the upcoming November 1 Federal Trade Commission town hall], we raised concerns. Ms. Dyson wrote that she was thinking of having key online marketing industry companies, inc. behavioral targeting firms, sponsor such a contest. In addition, Ms. Dyson herself has a long involvement with the high-tech industry, including a recent deal to appear on a Doubleclick-sponsored promotional video. We liked the idea of the public weighing-in. Just didn’t want the gatekeeper to be Ms. Dyson and online advertising industry-related sponsors.
Ms. Dyson has gotten Harvard’s Berkman Center and its project “Stopbadware.org” to act as the facilitator for the “Cookie Crumble” contest, which now includes a $5000 first prize. Five videos are to be shown during the two-day FTC event. I was told that one reviewer for the video submissions will be someone from Consumer Reports Webwatch. Google is a sponsor of the contest, as is Ms. Dyson’s EDVentures. Google is also a corporate sponsor of Berkman’s Stopbadware effort [we believe academic organizations focused on digital media policy who are funded by the very same companies they should be analyzing on behalf of the broad public, raises academic conflicts of interest]. By the way, we have agreed to be a reviewer of the final videos, after our privacy advocacy colleagues urged us to do so.
But as explained to both Berkman and our colleagues, this Google-supported PR effort is designed to undermine and narrow the growing debate on meaningful privacy protections for commercial digital communications. It’s not just cookies–that’s what the organizers and backers would like people to think. It’s a sophisticated, rapidly evolving, and–frankly disturbing–system with many inter-related components. Google knows that. So, I assume, does Berkman. Cookies are just one of the pieces of an highly-developed commercial data-mining and targeting system that’s designed to influence our behavior. The folks at Berkman should recognize that their reputation–something gained in part from the time when Lawrence Lessig graced their halls–is at stake when they give cover to political efforts favorable to their corporate backers. Hey, Berkman! What about a contest asking users to create videos about what a Google-Doubleclick merger will really mean for privacy and the future of digital media?
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