DOUBLECLICK Defeated in court
who says nothing can be done...
DOUBLECLICK AND PLAINTIFFS AGREE TO SETTLE PRIVACY LITIGATION"
DoubleClick Inc. and Co-Lead Counsel for Class Action Plaintiffs announced that they have reached an agreement to settle all the federal and state class action privacy litigation against the company. In the agreement, DoubleClick commits to a series of industry-leading privacy protections for online consumers while continuing to offer its products and services.
The settlement agreement announced will result in the dismissal of the federal and state class action privacy lawsuits that were filed against DoubleClick starting in January 2000. There will be a hearing on May 21, 2002 at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 21A in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to address final court approval of the settlement agreement.
As part of this agreement, DoubleClick has agreed to adhere to the following practices and policies:
· Clear Notice: The company's privacy policy will include easy-to-read explanations of its online ad serving services.
· Enhanced Choice: If the company collects personally identifiable information, previously collected clickstream obtained by the company from across web sites can only be combined with the personally identifiable information after the provision of clear and conspicuous notice to the Internet user and receipt of the Internet user's opt-in choice.
· Consumer Education: The company will undertake a consumer education effort, which includes 300 million consumer privacy banner ads that invite consumers to learn more about how to protect their online privacy. Over the last two years, the company has already voluntarily delivered 100 million ads relating to consumer privacy.
· Consistency: The company will ensure that an Internet user's online data will not be used in a manner materially inconsistent with the privacy policy under which it was collected, unless the consumer has given permission to do otherwise. The company will take steps to require that a successor to DoubleClick's business does not use Internet users' online data in a manner inconsistent with the privacy policy under which that data was collected.
· Purging of Data and Cookie Life: The company will institute internal policies to ensure the protection and routine purging of data collected online. The company will also purge online data it obtained during the course of testing the manner in which online and offline data could be merged. The company has also agreed to limit to five years the life of new ad serving cookies.
· Settlement Compliance: A nationally recognized independent accounting firm will conduct annual reviews for the next two years of DoubleClick's compliance with specified terms of the settlement, expanding on DoubleClick's current auditing program with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
· Legal Fees: Legal fees and costs of up to $1.8 million will be paid by the company. In the third quarter of 2001, DoubleClick publicly announced that it had accounted for this charge as part of its operating expenses.
http://www.optinnews.com/news/showar...sTable&ID=1140