The Gong Show

NYT has an interesting quick review of the latest battle in the war over who owns clickstream data?

The latest battle described here pitted Jeff Chester, the executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, against Mike Zaneis, the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) vice president for public policy. An attendee, Kaliya Hamlin, described the battle as the “angry, progressive anti-consumer guy vs. the super-corporate marketing guy.”

This debate has been played out many times, and I have participated on both sides of the table.

The blogger/publisher in me says that anytime users request data from my server, they need to give me as much information as required in order to allow my server to return the requested data. And, in exchange for that data, I have every right to log that requested data and use as I please (analytics, tracking, etc). Users have the right to do the same thing for me.

The consumer in me knows just how creepy this tracking can get, and I do think that consumers need some protections against the really aggressive tracking.

Mary Hodder’s blog Napsterization asks:

Is your clickstream a personal expression (carefully chosen and shaped by you)? In other words, can you copyright your clickstream and exert ownership?

This is a great question. And the lawyers I’ve talked to about this issue have come out mixed. Some say “yes” clickstream is subject to copyright law. Others say “no” it is not subject to copyright because a requirement for copyright is an intentional act of creation, and clickstream is generated implicitly, not intentionally.

I wish I was there to watch Mr. Chester and Mr. Zaneis duke it out in the latest battle over clickstream. And, I’m always interested in debating this subject with people. I’m happy to take on either side of the debate because I’m really torn internally.