Jumping on the grenade

The folks at NebuAd had an interesting week. It’s not often that a relatively small start-up is called to the Capitol Hill woodshed for a public spanking, but that’s pretty much how it played out. Although it appears NebuAd clearly underestimated the impact their technology would have on privacy advocates, the problem is that politicians are famous for not understanding technology (even slightly), and in general have a very thin grasp of business—and yet they find themselves in a position to dictate terms to folks in the business of technology. I think Scott McNealy captured it best when he said “You have no privacy, Get over it.” Organizations who are trying to protect our “privacy” such as the Center for Democracy and Technology have good intentions, but that genie is way out of the bottle, and no amount of chest beating is going to put it back in. The bottom line with companies like NebuAd is their technology produces results, and big companies are more than willing to spend big bucks to get that level of targeting accuracy.