[Infowarrior] - Ad Group Unveils Plan to Improve Web Privacy

[Richard Forno]

October 4, 2010
Ad Group Unveils Plan to Improve Web Privacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/business/media/04privacy.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

By TANZINA VEGA

As the debate around online privacy and advertiser access to users’ data continues, a group of the advertising industry’s largest trade organizations was to announce on Monday the details of a self-regulatory program that would allow users to opt out of being tracked by its member organizations.

The program provides details on how companies can adopt some of the principles for conducting online behavioral advertising outlined in a report released last July.

The program includes the use of an icon called the “Advertising Option Icon” that marketers can place near their ads or on the Web pages that collect data that is used for behavioral targeting. Users who click on the icon, a lower case letter “I” inside a triangle that is pointing right, will see an explanation of why they are seeing a particular ad and will be able to opt out of being tracked.

Some companies may still serve less focused ads after a user opts out, while others may stop showing ads to that user altogether. But representatives for the trade organizations said the steps were not an indication that the privacy debate had ended.

“This is a big step forward in what’s going to be on ongoing dialogue for many years,” said Stuart P. Ingis, a partner at the Venable law firm and a lawyer for the trade groups.

The program would affect the 5,000 companies that are represented by the trade organizations, which include the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, with additional support from the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The Better Business Bureaus group and the Direct Marketing Association will be charged with monitoring and enforcing compliance with the program and will also manage consumer complaints.

The organizations will provide Web seminars with information on the newly created program for advertisers, and will also use donated advertising space online to advertise the program to consumers.

Marketers that collect data for behavioral advertising will also be able to visit AboutAds.info to start to use the icon or register for the opt-out mechanism.

The trade groups have teamed up with Better Advertising, a New York start-up, which will provide the technology to monitor the ads online and report findings so the industry groups can take action. They will also monitor changes to the privacy policies for participating companies and report updates or changes.

But privacy advocates say self-regulation is not enough.

“This is just the latest version in a long series of failed self-regulatory efforts. We need the government to step in and set rules for industry,” said Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group based in California.