In the ongoing battle between online advertising platforms and online privacy advocates, score the latest round for privacy.
In an article in today's Washington Post, author Peter Whoriskey writes "Internet giant Yahoo is set to announce today that it will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a move that comes as a congressional committee continues to air concerns about consumer privacy."
Called "personalized advertising," "behavioral targeting," "targeted advertising," or "customized advertising," the ads in question are served up with custom content based on what the ad-platform company knows about a surfer's geographical location, age, gender, past clickstream behavior including past visited sites, response to online forms, etc.
Last week the House Committee on Energy and Commerce fired shots over the bows of 33 internet portals, access companies and other firms, Yahoo among them, asking for details on the "data collection practices of Internet network operators who tailor Internet advertising based on a consumer’s Web surfing activity." The targeted companies were:
Ad personalization is one of the holy grails for advertisers, thanks to the promise of higher response rates and conversion rates. Today's Wall Street Journal, for instance, says that the big question when News Corp. reports earnings will be whether MySpace has started driving meaningful revenue with its "Hypertargeting" ad program.
But the practice faces a thicket of privacy concerns. See past posts on the topic:
It's not just online advertisers and ad platforms who must navigate the minefield or privacy-versus-targeting. Any ecommerce merchant tempted to employ dynamic, personalized content and merchandising on his or her website needs to be aware of the potential pitfalls, of personalization done too intrusively, personalization done wrong, and even of giving the false impression of personalization:
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