When I come to the SDMB, doubleclick (the above SDMB banner is tied in with doubleclick.net) sometimes (but curiously not always) tries to access my computer.
I assume they are just looking for stuff like which browser I’m using, at which resolution, has he got graphics activated, etc. but does anyone know for sure and also what is the full list of details they might be after ?
I don’t know, but I’ll find out.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
How do you know this? I’m unfamiliar with the symptoms.
I was wondering the same thing as The 3Cs.
I have a ZoneAlarm firewall and I’ve never gotten a warning.
Why would the SDMB be connected with the bastards at DoubleClick? We don’t have any of their banner ads here, and we don’t have any of their advertising copy either. We’re too concerned with actual quality. I hope DoubleClick hasn’t wormed its way into the last best place online.
I think he’s talking about http://www.straightdope.com which has ads, even though the message board pages don’t.
I think “The Straight Dope” banner (above) is linked to doubleclick.net (at least that’s my reading of the source code). As you need a lot (is it one or three million uniques ?) of hits for them to care about your existence, I’m not overly familiar with the company.
2sense - My Zone Alarm installation does occasionally warn of doubleclick trying to gain access. I can’t explain why it does that inconsistently, nor why you haven’t had a warning from Zone Alarm. It just happens…Maybe they take a percentage of available info and I just happened to have more than my fair share attention ?
Ms Diva - Thanks for taking the time to check it out 
Adriatic Ionian Ægean-
One way to identify this is to keep a good track of your temp files. I erase mine constantly along with cookies and various other files. I’ve noticed from time to time references to DoubleClick when I know for a fact I’ve erased all new files, etc., and have only accessed the SDMB.
A second way to find out is a good firewall. ZoneAlarm is a good free-ware program, but others are equally as good, if not better. Depending upon how you set-up your firewall, you can monitor all exchanges taking place between your machine and the outside world and who is trying to access your computer.
Interestingly enough, as the O.P. notes, DoubleClick does seem to be random in its attempts. Don’t know why.
Keep in mind that my knowledge of this topic is pretty basic. If your interested in more detailed answers to these types of questions, the GQ forum is a good place to start.
The firewall software I use (Norton) allows me to completely block any access of or access from doubleclick.net’s domain. Should probably be a setting for this in other firewall programs?
My WAG is that Doubleclick is trying to pull information on you so they can try to custom tailor ads when they see you around the Web, that’s part of what they do. . . like the online bookstores make suggestions on new books to you based on your buying habits.
Hope this explains it for you. We do not collect or use such information.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Ms Diva - Thank you (and Jerry) for looking into it. DoubleClick are occasionally coming at me - and it seems CnoteChris has seen similar activity - through the SDMB .
I’m sure you’re right, they are probably trying to collect data for commercial purposes.
We used to run banner ads on the SDMB, so it’s possible some vestige of DoubleClick remains, as Jerry mentioned earlier. I’ll refer this back to him.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
TubaDiva - It’s not really a biggie for me. I was curious to know what exactly they wanted and also (as you note) as there is no advertising on this section of the site, what the relationship was between the SD and DoubleClick.
Whether or not it’s earned, they do have something of a cheeky reputation ……and there is both a
*<A HREF"=http://ad.doubleclick…"> and
<IMG SRC=“http://ad.doubleclick…”> * in the coding.
Oh my goodness, the BASTARDS!! 
Seriously, what does this tell us? I’m an end-used, I’m afraid. But I would like to know what sort of HTML code means that some punk is trying to access my stuff/habits/ net routines/whatever.
Those little code fragments mean two things:
<A HREF=“http://www.foo.bar”>foobar</A> gives you a link to http://www.foo.bar. Which means that the banner is a link to doubleclick’s webiste.
<IMG SRC=“http://www.foo.bar/img.gif”> gives you the image img.gif on http://www.foo.bar’s servers. Which means the banner uses images from doubleclick.
However, a quick mouseover on the ‘THE STRAIGHT DOPE’ banner says it links to http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/index.php and the image comes from http://boards.straightdope.com/pics/tsdbanner.gif which means that the banner on the SDMB is not directly working for doubleclick. Now, we know that the SDMB itself sets cookies. That’s how they track when you visited last and know which envelopes to make red, among other things. But on a quick browse of the SDMB Main Page code and the General Questions Forum code reveals nothing about doubleclick cookies. These boards use no Java or other server-side applications so you’re safe there. In short, doubleclick has not infiltrated this board except with a few lines of apparently unused code.
From the looks of it, the code simply gives the template for an advertisement. This template is not actually used, however.
FWIW, from the look of it I would agree the links are redundant The DoubleClick stuff is also within a comment tag so i guess it is part of an old template that hasn’t been removed. Sorry for the red herring.
I still don’t trust 'em, though.
