Google's DoubleClick Takeover: Double Data-Dealing

Comments by Jeff Chester, Center for Digital Democracy

National Press Club, September 17, 2007

Online and interactive advertising and marketing is a powerful, but still largely invisible, force shaping the future of our global society. The diversity of our news, information, and entertainment, our personal privacy, and ultimately our values related to family, work, friendship, and democracy are now linked to the structure of digital communications. Interactive marketing is at the core of the business model for much of the new media, including the personal computer and mobile platforms. A system has emerged where we are tracked, profiled, and analyzed, and then subjected to an array of sophisticated marketing communications designed to direct and change our personal behavior. Sadly, the public hasn't been well informed about what all of this means, what the choices and consequences might be, and what can be done about it. We are in a very important period of transition, where the decisions we make today about how we wish the Internet and other digital media to serve us as citizens and consumers will have profound consequences for us and for future generations.

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