The report -- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1898390 -- was technically correct. In fact, it's KISSmetrics that's distorting what the report said.
Shah writes "Mr. Soltani’s paper speculates that KISSmetrics tracks customers across websites based on his observation of a shared identifier on different customer websites."
Soltani's paper and my story about it said nothing of the sort.
Both point out that KISSmetrics technology gives a user the same unique ID on different sites, a technological choice that would allow its clients to compare their databases -- independent of KISSmetrics -- and share data about users.
I find the recent blog post odd, because on Friday, Shah told me it was accurate and that the techniques were legal.
Also, if they truly think they're innocent, why wouldn't they just educate their userbase? Seems odd to make such drastic architectural changes just because of a perceptual problem.
The mob decided someone was guilty, we investigated, found absolutely no wrongdoing. Told the community, they didn't care. They would only be happy with swift, visible action.
Any group, no matter how civil and educated, can dislove pretty quickly into mob mentality.
If you were competing against better funded companies - one of which may be behind these lawsuits (hey, this is business) - how much time would you spend educating? Wouldn't you rather just be selling and making money?