The Office of National Drug Control Policy has been secretly tracking internet users who visit two government websites to determine where they have been on the Internet, a clear violation of the recently released Clinton administration’s privacy policy for federal agencies.
It was reported on Wednesday that “cookies,” a computer code that is dropped on to the hard drive of visitors, typically used for tracking online advertising effectiveness, are being placed from the ONDCP’s www.freevibe.com and www.theantidrug.com websites. Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency used by the drug czar’s office, contracted with Internet advertising company DoubleClick Inc., one of the largest Internet user profilers in the nation.
When users type in certain key words relating to drugs on search engines, advertisements for the ONDCP sponsored sites appear. If the visitor clicks on the banner ad, a cookie is then placed on the user’s hard drive.
White House press secretary Joe Lockhart condemned this ONDCP practice claiming the White House just learned about this practice and pledged, “We will take all steps necessary to halt these practices now.”
“This is another outrageous example of ‘Big Brother’ trying to monopolize public discussion on the issue of marijuana,” said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. “It’s incredible that an agency of the federal government seeks to track web visitors as well as spend millions of taxpayer dollars buying up most of the relevant words a web viewer employs when researching the topic of ‘marijuana.’ Can you imagine the Environmental Protection Agency buying the search word ‘environment’ or the Department of Health and Human Services buying the search word ‘health’ and steering web viewers to government web sites? When will this rogue federal bureaucracy be reined in?”
St. Pierre concludes, “Even worse, if a web user types ‘National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws’ into most search engines, the user is immediately exposed to government propaganda in the form of a banner ad against marijuana. The drug czar won’t meet with or debate NORML, but he has no problem using our name to spread his lies.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.
