Ad industry reacts to behavioural targeting outcry

US— Advertising industry bodies have come up with a seven-point plan to regain consumer trust and head off the threat of potentially restrictive new privacy laws following the outcry over behavioural targeting practices.

The self-regulatory programme unveiled yesterday aims to better educate web users about what data is collected about their online activities, how it is gathered and used, and to make it easier for them to opt-out of systems that serve advertising to them based on their browsing histories.

It also requires internet service providers to obtain prior consent from their customers before engaging in online behavioural advertising – an unsurprisingly stringent demand, given that it was the ISP-level tracking and targeting offered by companies such as the now-defunct NebuAd that concerned privacy advocates the most.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau began working on the behavioural advertising principles earlier this year. They plan to implement the programme at the start of next year.

Publication of the principles this week was welcomed by Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour of the Federal Trade Commission, whose chairman Jon Leibowitz recently warned the ad industry “to do a better job of meaningful, rigorous self-regulation” or risk missing “the last chance” to show that it can work.

Jones Harbour said: “I commend these organisations for taking this important first step. I am hopeful that successful implementation will follow.”

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments


Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts