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Curbs urged for behavioural ads
August 31st, 2009 |
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By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
A powerful alliance of privacy and consumer groups have likened behavioural advertising to "being followed by an invisible stalker."
They now want Congress to curtail the practice of tracking consumers online to tailor ads more effectively.
Yahoo, Microsoft and Google all use targeted online advertisements.
"It’s not just about the right ad at the right time, it’s about creating a profile about you," said the Centre for Digital Democracy’s Jeffrey Chester.
"These companies want to know about your likes and dislikes, if you are Hispanic, do you vote, are you on a low income or a high income, where do you travel, what do you like to read.
"It’s about a system that not only targets and influences the products you buy but is also a powerful and invisible system of digital persuasion designed to change attitudes and awareness," Mr Chester told BBC News.
The coalition of ten organisations is expected to call on the government to allow consumers to "opt in" rather than "opt out" of such advertising models.
It will also seek to ensure no data is collected around financial or health matters. The key, many say, is transparency.
"An individual’s data belongs to them and before these companies track you all over the internet, they need to be transparent about what they are doing and how they intend to use that information," said John Simpson, consumer advocate with the Consumer Watchdog.
Tracking
The call to put limits on such advertising comes as the House Commerce Committee is drafting legislation to improve consumer privacy online.
Congress held hearings on the issue in June. Testimony was provided by Facebook, Google and Yahoo.
While Yahoo and Microsoft have used behavioural advertising for some time, Google waited until March of this year to employ what is also referred to as "internet-based advertising".
In general the system uses a cookie – a small piece of text that lives inside a web browser – to track users as they visit different websites.
This information is then used to target online advertising campaigns at consumers because they tend to result in higher online ad return rates.
That means a user who is a keen traveller and visits lots of travel sites would be shown more travel-related ads.
"Golden egg"
A coalition of America’s marketing industry trade bodies, representing about 5,000 companies, published a set of seven principles in July to address concerns around the issue.
"A broad ‘opt in’ would be a sea change and it would be a recipe for disaster"
Mike Zaneis,
Interactive Advertising Bureau
"The vast majority of what happens online is truly anonymous and all marketers and publishers are trying to do is deliver an ad that has some relevancy to the person viewing it at a certain time," Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau told BBC News.
"The beautiful thing is they don’t have to click on that advert, or pay attention to it or do anything."
While Mr Zaneis agreed more has to be done to educate consumers about the issue, he also warned that pushing for a blanket "opt in" measure would be disastrous.
"A broad ‘opt in’ would be a sea change and it would be a recipe for disaster. It would kill the goose laying the golden egg.
"The goose is the internet and the golden egg is the free content and services that consumers enjoy and that would be diminished," said Mr Zaneis.
Other organisations included in this broad alliance include the Consumers Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, World Privacy Forum, Privacy Times and the Consumer Federation of America.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Lib Dems demand curbs on spying
August 10th, 2009 |
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The Lib Dems want tighter controls on surveillance powers for authorities including councils and the police.
More than 500,000 requests to access phone and e-mail records were made in 2008, a report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner showed.
The Lib Dems say only a magistrate should be able to approve a request for surveillance, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).
The Home Office said the powers should be used only when "proportionate".
‘Beggars belief’
An average of about 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain last year, according to figures which have emerged from an annual report by commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy.
That is the annual equivalent to one in every 78 adults being targeted.
Although slightly down on 2007, the total number of requests last year was up by more than 40% on 2006.
It included 1,500 approved applications from local councils.
"The government forgets that George Orwell’s 1984 was a warning, and not a blueprint"
Chris Huhne, Lib Dems
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the figures "beggared belief".
"Many of these operations carried out by the police and security services are necessary, but the sheer numbers are daunting," he said.
"It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year.
"We have sleepwalked into a surveillance state, but without adequate safeguards. Having the Home Secretary in charge of authorisation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.
"The government forgets that George Orwell’s 1984 was a warning and not a blueprint."
‘Collective security’
Ministers introduced Ripa to help tackle serious crimes including terrorism.
The act allows certain people within councils, police forces and other public bodies to ask for details of when e-mails were sent or phone calls made and to whom, although it does not give them access to their content.
Councils, in particular, have been criticised for using Ripa to investigate more trivial matters, such as dog fouling.
A Home Office spokesman said: "Of course it’s vital that we strike the right balance between individual privacy and collective security and that is why the Home Office is clear these powers should only be used when they are proportionate.
"To ensure the appropriate use of Ripa, the Home Office has recently completed a public consultation on revised codes of practice, and on all public authorities able to use certain techniques relating to Ripa, the ranks at which these techniques can be authorised and the purposes for which they can be used."
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.