Behavioral Advertising
Balancing Benefits to Consumers with Privacy Concerns
Behavioral advertising is a term the Federal Trade Commission uses to refer to tracking of a consumer’s Web search and browsing activities. By tracking the person or a particular Internet device – e.g., a Web-enabled cell phone or a computer – a distinct profile of a customer’s online behavior is created. The profile is then used to deliver targeted advertising content.
Behavioral advertising’s benefits to consumers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must be carefully balanced with inherent consumer concerns.
Benefit: By harnessing the wide, almost limitless content of the Internet, behavioral advertising can effectively deliver helpful, informative and specific content to consumers. Online advertising provides investment, innovation and revenue that allows, you, the consumer, to access many services and programming for free or at discounted rates.
Concern: Often times, behavioral advertising is largely invisible to the user, creating significant questions about an individual’s privacy. You don’t know you’re being tracked and by whom, and you don’t have to give your permission in advance.
The role of the cookie.
In Internet lingo, a “cookie” plays an important role in behavioral advertising. Cookies are small files dropped into your computer that can uniquely identify your searching and surfing on the Web.
Benefit: Many cookies are innocent and harmless enough; they simply make Internet use easier for consumers. When you register on a Web site to make a purchase, a cookie allows the site to remember you so you can quickly and easily review your purchase or its status.
Concern: Cookies can allow an advertiser or ISP to track a consumer’s full Web surfing experience, can embed software on your computer or download applications that – without the consumer’s knowledge or advance consent – can log every “step” you take or site you visit on the Web.
Why it matters.
Most consumers think they surf the Web somewhat anonymously. The Internet Protocol (IP) address is assumed to be distinct from our name, e-mail or other personal contact information. However, often times ISPs, advertisers and search engines collect information about your online activity and sell that information to third parties. These third parties can match IP addresses with other personal information collected by their partner Web sites, raising even more consumer privacy and online security concerns.
What we can do.
Behavioral advertising done right is not necessarily a bad thing. With appropriate levels of consumer privacy protection in place, behavioral advertising can harness the power of the Internet for the consumer.
A consumer’s Behavioral Advertising Bill of Rights might look something like this:
Consumers must have the ability to actively consent or opt in to behavioral advertising. Explicit permission from the consumer must be granted. In advance, consumers should know what information will be collected, by whom and for what purpose. Security of a consumer’s personal information should also be of paramount importance.