Fergie's Tech Blog

Akamai Wants to Sell User Data For Targeted Ads

Saul Hansell writes on The New York Times "Bits" Blog:

So Akamai, a company woven deep into the plumbing of the Internet that helps make Web sites faster, now wants to help collect data about Internet users on behalf of companies that want to advertise to them.

Last week, Akamai agreed to buy Acerno, a three-year old advertising network that draws data about what people shop for from more than 400 online stores. (I wrote about some of the privacy implications of Acerno’s existing business last week.)

But the bigger question is what does it mean that Akamai, one of the most important Internet companies that most people have never heard of, wants to collect data about people?

posted by Fergie @ 10/28/2008 10:49:00 PM