Behavioral Targeting Comes Under Fire

While privacy advocates express concerns, regulators weigh legislation vs. self-policing

Behavioral targeting, a technique used by online publishers and advertisers alike to deliver content and marketing messages to Web site visitors based on their Web-browsing behavior, is under increasing scrutiny by Congress and consumer privacy advocates.

While advertisers and publishers say the approach is an effective way to deliver relevant information and messages, privacy groups have voiced concerned over who controls vast amounts of personal data and how those data may be used for years.

With the pending release of final guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission, one result of the controversy may be more rigorous self-regulation.

More worrisome to marketing and media companies, however, would be new federal legislation curtailing behavioral targeting tactics. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 l Permalink l Digg l del.icio.us

Tags: Behavioral Targeting, Data Collection, Observing Behavior, Online Advertising, Opt In/Out, Privacy, Social Media, Web