Behavioral Advertising and Privacy

About Behaviorally targeted advertising, World Privacy Forum testimony and Comments, resources

What is "behaviorally targeted advertising"?

Some of the advertising that is done online comes with hooks. Using a variety of technologies, some largely unseen, online advertisers can track online activities, sometimes in profound ways that consumers are not expecting. Not all online advertising has "hooks" that are problematic or that raise privacy challenges. But a type of advertising called "behaviorally targeted advertising" often does. Behavioral advertising has two key components: tracking and targeting.

• Behavioral tracking is the practice of collecting and compiling a record of individual consumers' activities, interests, preferences, and/or communications over time.
• Behavioral Targeting is when behavioral tracking is used as a basis to serve advertisements and/or otherwise market goods or services to a consumer based on his or her behavioral record.

There are privacy issues with behavioral tracking and targeting, and there are also fairness issues. For example, if a person is searching the web for information on a serious genetic disease, that information can be collected and stored along with that consumer's other information -- including information that can uniquely identify the consumer. How is that information used? Does the person have a meaningful choice about whether it is collected or used? Does the person have the right to delete information that may be harmful if associated with him or her, such as information that could be shared about a genetically-linked condition? These and many other questions arise in the context of behaviorally targeted advertising.

Not all advertising is inherently bad. The World Privacy Forum has no complaint about legitimate advertising; our complaint is with intrusive and
difficult- to-detect (or nearly impossible to detect) profiling of consumers that is part of certain kinds of advertising practices. For example, we note the Internet Service Provider (ISP) -level profiling activities that have in the past been launched without sufficient transparency or consumer rights to make decisions about the profiling, among other issues.

World Privacy Forum Reports and Information about Behavioral Advertising

The World Privacy Forum has been active in the behavioral advertising debate, most particularly on the privacy aspects of some practices. Here is a collection of our reports, testimony, comments, and resources on this issue.

Report: The NAI: Failing at Consumer Protection and at Self-Regulation

Released November 2007

This World Privacy Forum Report documents in detail the history and failures of the first FTC/industry self-regulation effort, the Network Advertising Initiative or NAI.

• Read the Report (45 pages)

Comments: Online Behavioral Advertising: Moving the Discussion Forward

Filed with the Federal Trade Commission April 2008

World Privacy Forum comments to the FTC regarding its proposed online advertising principles from December 2007. WPF urged the FTC to think beyond a voluntary regime led by industry and to provide meaningful transparency, choice, and privacy for consumers in light of the of the demonstrated problems with behaviorally targeted advertising. The WPF also urged the FTC to define "sensitive information," especially in light of the large amount of medical information going online. The WPF took a position that advertising should never be targeted based on genetic information.

• Read the WPF comments to the FTC (17 pages)

Testimony: Privacy and Online Advertising: Self-regulation's track record in the sector

FTC workshop, November 2007

World Privacy Forum Testimony on the failure of the FTC's first self-regulatory plan, the Network Advertising Initiative.

• Link to the FTC testimony

Consensus document: Consumer Rights and Protections in the Behavioral Advertising Sector

Released October 2007

Joint Comments to the FTC: this is a consensus document originating from a two-day meeting the World Privacy Forum held in October of 2007.

• Read the consensus document

Cookie opt-out page:

(Updated regularly)

The online advertising self-regulatory plan operates by a little-known method called the "opt-out cookie." This World Privacy Forum resource links to the opt-out cookies and explains more about how it all works.

• See the Cookie Opt Out Page

Behavioral Advertising Timeline

It is useful to see how behaviorally targeted advertising is developing over time. This mini timeline traces the key developments in this issue and helps give a quick mapping of events.

• Current for Spring 2011: lawmakers begin proposing bills on behavioral advertising online, among other online privacy issues.
• Feb. 2011: Mozilla releases a Do Not Track beta version of its Firefox browser.
• December 2010: FTC releases its staff report on privacy, the report includes a discussion of commercial data brokers and expressly endorses Do Not Track.
• December 2009 - March 2010: FTC holds its Exploring Privacy Roundtable hearings
• February 12, 2009: FTC releases its second version of self-regulation (voluntary rules for companies) in behavioral advertising.
• December 2007: FTC proposes a new set of voluntary rules for companies.
• November 2007: FTC workshop/hearing on behaviorally targeted advertising. See World Privacy Forum testimony to the FTC and its report on the historic failure of the Network Advertising Initiative.
• October 2007: WPF convenes a meeting of privacy and civil liberty groups at UC Berkeley. The privacy groups meet for two days and create a consensus document regarding behavioral advertising. The document is submitted to the FTC by 11 signatories. The document includes definitions of terms, and a Do Not Track proposal.
• November 2006: CDD and US PIRG file an FTC complaint regarding online advertising. This complaint was the impetus behind the Nov. 2007 FTC Town hall meeting.
• November 2003: The NAI has only 2 members.
• November 2002: the NAI has only 2 members.
• July 2000: FTC issues the second part of its report on privacy issues with online advertising, and accepts and votes on the NAI industry proposal to create voluntary standards for privacy.
• June 2000: FTC releases part one of its report on privacy issues with online advertising.
• November 1999: the industry-led, self-regulatory Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) formally begins with 10 members.
• November 1999: First FTC workshop on online advertising.
• Spring 1999: FTC invites companies to discuss self-regulation.