Online publishers and technology firms are thrashing out
proposals to allow organisations to self-regulate how they track
the publics' behaviour on the web, when targeting them with
marketing.
The proposals aim to enhance consumer safety, preserve
commercial choice and educate consumers, said Nick Stringer, head
of regulatory affairs at the
Internet Advertising
Bureau, which is co-ordinating the process.
Firms in the discussion include: technology firms Google, Yahoo,
Microsoft Advertising and BT advertisement serving firms Revenue
Science, Platform A and Phorm and publishers the BBC, Reuters, the
Telegraph and the Guardian.
Providing marketing material based on individuals' online
behaviour has raised controversy and privacy concerns in most
countries. To do so, companies have to track where an internet user
goes online, what they search for, who they connect with, and what
they buy. They use this information to build a profile of an
individual's likes and dislikes, and use that to sell them
something.
While this is a commercial application, profiling technology is
also widely used in the law enforcement and fraud prevention
sectors to identify suspicious transactions and individuals.
When
BT conducted secret trials of an advertisement-serving
technology from Phorm in 2006 and again in 2007, some complained
that
BT and Phorm were
invading people's privacy and abusing their trust in their
service providers. BT completed a third round of trials in December
and is now assessing the results.
The upside of behaviour-based targeted marketing is that it
should be relevant to the person who receives it. This saves the
marketer money and reduces the amount of junk advertising the
consumer receives. The downside is that the marketer has to collect
a lot of data over time to build up a picture of what is relevant
to that individual.
Many privacy watchdogs, including the
Information
Commissioner's Office, want consumers to make a conscious
decision to opt in to receive targeted marketing data, with opt-out
as the default.
This could destroy or hurt the business model of hundreds of
internet-based firms, including Google, Amazon and Yahoo.
Google has never revealed exactly what information it collects
when someone uses its search engine, and few others do. Many
companies use "cookies"
(small software programs) that track where one goes and what one
does on the net, and send the information to the cookies' owners.
Some believe this is little different to malicious spyware, which
might capture your bank account details, read your e-mail and map
your online relationships.
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BT to go ahead with Phorm ad-server deployment >>
BT and Phorm escape police investigation over adware trials
>>
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