In recent years with the continued development of the new rough and wild American "Frontier," the Internet, we have experienced an entirely new development of uncharted legal questions and interpretations of the same old laws. Once thought to be a very black and white issue by the founding fathers in drafting the Constitution, an individual's right to privacy enters new interpretations as the Internet invades our homes and companies download and deposit information to and from our computers on a daily basis. The pivotal question is how far can these entities go in violating privacy and how much consent is necessary to allow them the free access they desire. The case of Doubleclick is one that exemplifies this development and demonstrates how a lack of attention to a clear and revealing strategy, taking into consideration all of the relevant factors of the environment, can almost be terminal to business. At the very least, it became a media and public image nightmare.

Case Study