DoubleClick aligns with privacy adviser

Net advertising company DoubleClick says it has partnered with consulting firm Privacy Council to instruct clients on privacy matters, furthering its commitment to online safeguards. The New York-based company, which has previously come under fire for its data-collection practices, is working with the Privacy Council, based in Richardson, Texas, to help ensure its customers are compliant with privacy standards set in Microsoft's recently released Internet Explorer 6.0. The browser applies the P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences), a tool that lets Web surfers automatically screen sites according to their privacy policies. Although DoubleClick has implemented the standard for its ad-delivery system, it says many of its clients are behind on updating their Web sites for IE 6, which could cause disruption for visitors using the browser.

Over the last 16 months, DoubleClick has worked to improve its privacy practices by hiring a first-ever chief privacy officer, Jules Polenetsky, and participating in industry self-regulation and awareness campaigns.