FTC chairman pushes for behavioural targeting opt-in

US-- The new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission has hinted that firms engaging in behavioural targeting may have to get users to opt in before tracking their online activities.

Jon Leibowitz, who has been a member of the commission since 2004 and was designated chairman by President Obama in March, said in an interview on cable TV station C-Span that while opt-out systems are not necessarily illegal, “the better practice is always opt-in”.

So far, companies conducting behavioural targeting have used opt-out systems, with information about tracking and what to do if you don't want to be tracked often buried in lengthy and complex privacy policies.

In principles published earlier this year for self-regulation of behavioural targeting, the FTC stopped short of specifying whether the option to take part should be in the form of an opt-in or opt-out.

But in an individual statement issued at that time, Leibowitz said the industry needed “to do a better job of meaningful, rigorous self-regulation” or risk missing “the last chance” to show that it can work.

Controversy over the privacy implications of the technology has already caused problems for NebuAd, which shelved its ad targeting system in September last year, and for BT in the UK, which was found to have conducted secret trials of Phorm's ad targeting system in 2006 and 2007.

Author: Robert Bain

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