content so that the user does not discern any
separate GET requests from the third-parties.1
As the defendants deliver their advertisements directly
to users from their own servers, the defendants have the
capacity to vary how they populate their rented webpage
space. This capacity permits targeting by which the
defendants may serve different advertisements to different
visitors. The general principle is that the more that an
advertisement is tailored to its audience—sneakers for
runners, legal pads for lawyers—the greater the
advertisement’s expected value. Here, the value of
customization, combined with the capacity for individuated
advertisement service, impels internet advertisers to surmise
whatever they can about each particular person requesting
webpage content.
As pled in the complaint:
To inject the most targeted ads possible, and
therefore charge higher rates to buyers of the ad
space, these third-party companies . . . compile
the [i]nternet histories of users. The third-party
advertising companies use “third-party cookies”
to accomplish this goal. In the process of
injecting the advertisements into the first-party
websites, the third-party advertising companies
also place third-party cookies on user’s
computing devices. Since the advertising
companies place advertisements on multiple
sites, these cookies allow these companies to
1
Compl. ¶ 41.
6