The Interactive Advertising Bureau has joined the ranks of companies and advocacy groups attempting to get ahead of upcoming privacy legislation by offering up their own solution to the growing complaints about online behavior tracking.
IAB has launched an educational campaign aimed at consumers called Privacy Matters. The campaign and its accompanying website explain to consumers exactly what advertisers know about them. "Advertisers target ads by gauging the content you show interest in - including the sites you visit and the ads you click," one portion of the site says. "If you spend a lot of time on online news entertainment pages, advertisers will assume you’re a good candidate to see an ad for the latest movie."
The campaign uses stark headlines to grab consumers' attentions - far more alarmist than the actual copy - including "Advertising is creepy" and "Hey, this banner can tell where you live. Mind if we come over and sell you stuff?"
You Are Viewing a Customized Ad
The Future of Privacy Forum is another organization readying its own campaign. A privacy group backed by AT&T, it is in the final stages of developing a logo that would appear on ads or websites to alert consumers that they are viewing an ad customized according to their internet browsing habits or that their web browsing is being tracked (via the Wall Street Journal).
The goal is to create a symbol that will gain the same awareness as the recycle triangle, according to Jules Polonetsky, director of the forum. The group has yet to settle on a particular logo but has nixed using a "T" for targeting or an eyeball, the Journal said.
Private Sector Privacy Policies
Companies - particularly those whose business models are based online - are also tweaking policies. Facebook, which has already been focusing on this issue at the behest of the Canadian regulatory authorities, plans to eliminate "regional networks," or groupings of people based on where they live, wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his company's blog.
Such communities - for a school, or company or region - worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, he said. "However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy." In its place Facebook will create a simpler model for privacy control where users can set content to be available to only friends, friends of friends, or everyone.
The same time, privacy advocates are entering the mix with their own proposals. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, just launched a site called Takebackyourprivacy.org to mobilize and organize consumers to push for privacy controls and legislation.
Government Action
All of this activity isn’t happening in a vacuum - this week the FTC is hosting a roundtable exploring privacy issues. Topics include, benefits and risks of collecting, using, and retaining consumer data, consumer expectations and disclosures, online behavioral advertising, information brokers and exploring existing frameworks.
Also pending is possible new privacy legislation. Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Cliff Sterns (R-Fla.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) have said they are working on broad privacy legislation, according to The Hill.
