Behavioral advertising is a hot issue on the internet today. Despite the fact that consumers overwhelmingly reject it, internet companies rely on behavioral advertising for billions of dollars in advertising revenues. Seeking a way to keep the gravy train rolling, a consortium of internet companies recently pushed for a tightened self-regulatory model, but their efforts don’t seem to have gotten anywhere, as the government is still pressing for legislation that will provide sweeping changes to the way internet companies can use data and how they inform consumers about data mining.
Most recently, the advertising industry and internet companies have teamed up to make one more pitch to the government to show their commitment to protecting user privacy. Unsurprisingly, the advertising industry’s solution involves more advertising.
The plan is detailed in the Wall Street Journal,
“The industry is finalizing an ad campaign to educate consumers about how digital advertising works, creating an icon that would appear on Web pages or ads alerting consumers if their activity is being tracked and deploying new technologies to police the Web for illegal activities. At issue is the practice of tracking consumers’ Web activities — from the searches they make to the sites they visit and the products they buy — for the purpose of targeting ads.”
[...]
“We don’t have the drafting pen up on the Hill, so instead of wringing our hands on what they may or may not write, we are just trying to build the most credible self-regulatory program possible,” says Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group representing 375 media and technology companies, including AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The IAB is putting the finishing touches on a digital ad campaign to teach consumers about how online advertising works. It plans to launch the campaign before the end of the year.
Ideally, the internet companies and the government will come to some kind of agreement that protects and informs consumers of their digital rights without significantly limiting the economy of the web. Unfortunately, this compromise seems to be a long ways off.
As the stalemate lingers, however, consumer awareness on the issue is rising, and that’s not a good sign for the internet companies. In a recent survey by Forrester Research, over 75% of adults indicated they were uncomfortable with a company sharing their browsing history. The number rises to 90% when the information being shared includes your phone number.
[image via Wall Street Journal]
Given that hundreds of thousands of people signed up for the government’s Do Not Call Registry, it’s no surprise that people are showing equal concern for their digital privacy. That’s why ReputationDefender came up with MyPrivacy. When you sign up for MyPrivacy, you’re joining the Global Do Not Call List, a place where you can keep your personal information out of people search databases with the click of a button. While the trade groups and beaurocrats sort out the details of whatever proposal they’re working on, you don’t have to remain unprotected. MyPrivacy, and all of the tools from ReputationDefender, can help keep you safe online.
1 comment so far ↓
[...] regulation, a coalition of internet companies calling themselves the Interactive Advertising Bureau formed a campaign to educate consumers about behavioral advertising. That campaign was made formal yesterday with the [...]
Leave a Comment