The reaction from online privacy protection groups was immediate and substantial. The FTC launched an investigation, the Internet’s privacy issues e-mail lists and chat rooms buzzed with furious conversation and, in the end, DoubleClick abandoned its plans to integrate its cookie-generated data with the identity information in the Abacus database. Although DoubleClick is still one of the largest banner advertising networks, it had been counting on generating additional revenue by using the information in the combined database that it was unable to create.
When the FTC probe concluded two years later, DoubleClick was not charged with any violations of laws or regulation. The lesson here is that a company violates the Internet community’s ethical standards at its own peril, even if the transgression does not break any laws.