Mixes your data

SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft started linking your search habits with other personal data in a bid to create more personalised advertisements.

According to Mercury News, Vole rolled out the behavioural targeting technology in early September but did not disclose any dates that it would be used in anger.

Now it apparently plans to use cookies, mixed in with the personal information users provide when they sign up for Hotmail e-mail and other Microsoft sites to profile web users.

It will then use that information to build a profile for classes of users and flog marketers the opportunity to reach that targeted group as they surf. Yahoo and several other sites have used personalised ads based on web surfing habits, but so far Vole has stayed aloof.

In early tests Microsoft found that behavioural targeting increased by as much as 76 per cent the likelihood a visitor would click on an ad.

Vole seems to think that users will be happy to have their personal data used if they get advertisements that are relevant to them. Clearly they have not seen the Minority Report.

More here (mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/16329277.htm).

Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36596