EXelate Media, a start-up that collects and sells web data on consumers, is set to announce a partnership with Nielsen to merge data that may help provide advertisers with more detailed profiles of consumers. But some regulators are voicing concerns that linking web-surfing habits with personal data crosses a major privacy line, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
EXelate gathers online consumer data through deals with hundreds of websites. Based on site visitors' access and registration data, the company can determine a consumer's demographic information and web habits via use of cookies. The new deal will allow advertisers to go to eXelate to buy Nielsen's Claritas-PRIZM data converted to a cookie-based digital format. That data comes from sources such as the Census Bureau and consumer research firms, as well as Nielsen's own research.
Though eXelate claims its data can't be traced to individual consumers, and Nielsen strips out consumers' personally identifying information, the powerful targeting combination has come under fire before, and was a factor in the FTC's probe of DoubleClick in 2000.
"If consumers learn that information about them has been compiled from multiple different sources, it could certainly cause them to be concerned," said Christopher Olsen, an assistant director in the division of privacy and identity protection at the Federal Trade Commission.
