LONDON (Brand Republic) - The US Federal Trade Commission has cleared online advertising company DoubleClick of privacy invasion.
The FTC began the inquiry last February, when US privacy advocates accused DoubleClick of violating its privacy policy by using data to create personal profiles of internet users.
The concerns were raised when the company bought Abacus Direct, a database of consumer information. According to privacy groups, the information could be merged with DoubleClick鈥檚 own data collected from the internet to create personally identifiable profiles.
In a letter to DoubleClick, however, the FTC has cleared the company of using the data in this way.
When the inquiry began, DoubleClick moved swiftly to limit the negative publicity surrounding the investigation. It appointed an independent consumer privacy advisory board and hired New York City consumer affairs commissioner Jules Polonetsky as chief privacy officer.
In Europe, DoubleClick hired Amanda Chandler to handle the company鈥檚 privacy strategies. She joined the company from the UK Data Protection Commission, where she was compliance manager.
www.doubleclick.com