The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the
Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing
Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
have said that they will work together to create self-regulatory
principles for behavioural advertising.
Behavioural advertising is that which responds to someone's
online activities, as measured by monitoring systems. Privacy
activists have raised concerns about increasingly sophisticated
monitoring of users' activities, some of which monitor all activity
at the ISP level, rather than at an individual web page level.
US consumer regulator the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
published the results of an investigation into behavioural
advertising a year ago. It said that it did not think government
regulation was necessary yet, but that the industry should
self-regulate.
The group of advertising industry associations has said that it
will base its principles on those identified by the FTC.
The FTC said that: "every web site where data is collected for
behavioral advertising should provide a clear, consumer-friendly,
and prominent statement that data is being collected to provide ads
targeted to the consumer and give consumers the ability to choose
whether or not to have their information collected for such
purpose".
It also said that companies that collect information should
provide security for it and should only retain it for as long as is
necessary to fulfill its purpose. It also said that sensitive data,
such as medical information, should only be collected with specific
permission from users.
"It is our responsibility as marketers to ensure the web surfing
public’s privacy interests remain protected," said ANA chief
executive Bob Liodice. "Strong and comprehensive self-regulation
strikes a balance that both protects the public interest and allows
marketers to provide relevant advertising, which is particularly
critical during this period of economic downturn."
"Effective self-regulation of interactive advertising will help
ensure that our industry can continue to evolve and innovate,
offering consumers what they want when they want it," said Randall
Rothenberg, chief executive of the IAB. "The value of online
advertising to consumers and businesses cannot be understated,
particularly in these challenging economic times. We want to be
certain that we demonstrate the value exchange to the public that
comes from online advertising."
Advertising technology companies NebuAd in the US and Phorm in
the UK have promoted technologies which allow advertising to be
based on all of a user's internet traffic by using data gathered
from users' internet service providers (ISPs).
Privacy activists have said that the use of such technologies
risks violating users' rights to privacy.
The FTC said in its report, though, that behavioural advertising
is important because it allows companies to provide consumers with
free content, but warned that consumers must be informed of its
use.
"Behavioural advertising provides benefits to consumers in the
form of free content... [but] this practice is largely invisible
and unknown to consumers," the FTC said in a statement.
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