Rapleaf on Monday denied that it collects tracking information about the online community or that it should be classified as a behavioral tracking company; it deals only with publicly available information, the company said in a blog post.
"In contrast to behavioral tracking companies, Rapleaf does not collect information about users' online browsing behavior," Rapleaf wrote. "Rapleaf works with information that is publicly-available about people online (similar to what would appear in public Google search), and augments that data with various widely available offline databases — such as voter registration information and generic U.S. Census data — to help develop the most relevant online experiences for users."
Rapleaf's comments come amidst a series of articles from The Wall Street Journal that said apps on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace were sharing users' personal information with ad networks and Internet companies like Rapleaf.
A Monday article, in particular, profiled a New Hampshire senior who received online advertisements for a Republican Senate hopeful because Rapleaf had correctly identified her as a conservative interested in Republican politics.
"RapLeaf says it never discloses people's names to clients for online advertising. But possessing real names means RapLeaf can build extraordinarily intimate databases on people by tapping voter-registration files, shopping histories, social-networking activities and real estate records, among other things," according to the Journal.
Rapleaf transmitted identifying details – like a Facebook user ID - about the New Hampshire woman to at least 12 companies. Rapleaf said it has since stopped the practice of sending UIDs.
How does it work? When a person logs into a particuar site, that site will send information to Rapleaf, which looks up that person in an e-mail database, the Journal said. RapLeaf then installs a cookie on the person's computer with details about them, excluding name and other identifiable data, reportedly.
"It is impossible for Rapleaf to link your browsing behavior to our offline database, because we do not track any browsing behavior. It is simply not our business model," Rapleaf said. "Additionally, all of our cookies are anonymous: we have gone beyond industry conventions to not use any unique IDs in our cookies. We also go one step further by removing combinations of segments that may be potentially identifying."
Rapleaf creates "anonymous audience segments" that will include data like "Female" and "Age 24," Rapleaf said on its Web site. "The cookie segments tell ad serving networks what ads will most likely interest you, helping you to see more relevant content and companies to advertise their products more efficiently," the company said.
Not everyone is convinced. The Journal also reports that Jim Dempsey, a privacy advocate at the Center for Democracy and Technology, has resigned from the Rapleaf board.
In the wake of the Facebook UID news, two House members wrote to Facebook to demand answers about how many UIDs were transmitted, as well as additional information about its data collection processes. They asked Facebook to respond by Oct. 27.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 730pm Eastern time with Dempsey's correct affiliation.