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Deconstructing Gator Targeting
Posted by James Grimmelmann on Saturday, May 24 @ 16:43:45 EDT
Contributed by BenEdelman
Consumers
BenEdelman writes "Ever wonder what web sites are targeted by Gator and what ads Gator shows? (Recall that Gator monitors what web sites are visited by users of its software and shows pop-up advertisements in response.) My new report, Documentation of Gator Advertisements and Targeting, documents more than seven thousand targeted sites -- including 151 .EDUs (Yale among them!), 41 .GOVs, 11 .MILs, and even who.int (the World Health Organization). Gator advertisers include Air France, Expedia, NetFlix, Verizon DSL, and Western Union, among hundreds of others.

Gator's activities have been controversial -- spurring numerous lawsuits by operators of affected web sites. The Washington Post, New York Times, and others asked me last year to serve as an expert in their suit against Gator (subsequently settled), and in the context of that case I began systematic monitoring of precisely which ads Gator displays in response to user requests for which web sites.

When web site operators wish to learn whether their sites are targeted by Gator advertisements, they have had to install the Gator client on a computer and check whether Gator displays ads subsequent to repeated requests for their sites. This is an inconvenient and time-consuming process, and it can sometimes give incomplete results.

Accordingly, I'm pleased to report that I have devised a better alternative: By monitoring the communication between Gator's client software (as installed on users' computers) and Gator's servers, I've learned how to determine whether Gator targets ads at a specified web site, and if so which ads are targeted at which parts of the site.

The report describes my methodology and findings, including more than twelve hundred specific web sites targeted by Gator. My report also offers users a web form for testing whether Gator targets specified sites and, if it does, viewing the specific ads Gator shows. The report is available at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/ads/gator

Prior coverage by LaMeme: May '03."

 
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