Advertisers have grown much more sophisticated since the early days of the web and can now target us with increasing precision using a wider range of behavioral data than ever before. In spite of that or perhaps because of it the advertising industry plans to start including a transparent mechanism this summer that can give you a hint as to why particular advertisements found you and provide unprecedented controls to control or even stop them.
The solution dictates that ad networks include a standard icon within web-based ads that lets users access their behavioral profile on the ad network in question. Users will also be able to opt out from being targeted by ads that rely on their profiles.
The industry did not decide to do this on its own, but because the Federal Trade Commission called on advertisers to regulate their own targeted advertising early last year. Advertisers formed a cross-industry coalition to figure out how to serve ads that are customized to consumers recent and past behavior, without scaring users or drawing more government scrutiny. (Members include the American Association of Advertisers Agency, the Association of National Advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the Direct Marketing Association and the Council of Better Business Bureaus.)
Behavioral advertising is important to advertising and to the future of the internet, said Lee Peeler, vice president of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The industry wanted to respond positively to the challenges that the Federal Trade Commission put in front of it, when it said We want to see you do this on a self-regulatory basis.
If advertisers fail to do so, they could face harsher rules, such as limitations on what sorts of data they can collect in the first place (including health and financial), regardless of how they use it.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
