In an attempt to head off legislation by US law-makers, the advertising industry has agreed to introduce a new icon to run across all behavioural targeted advertising. The icon will link to a web page where users will be told how that particular ad is being targeted with data collected on their online behaviour.
It is expected that the icon will start appearing on ads by mid-summer. You can see what the BT icon looks like here.
This new initiative comes at a time when EU and US legislators are paying close attention to online privacy. Feadrful of a simillar EU “cookie” direcutive, US advertiosers have been very pro-active in tryihng to address the issue. Could the IAB introduce the idea of a "health warning" on BT ads here in Europe?
The NYT has more on the US icon initiative:
Trying to ward off regulators, the advertising industry has agreed on a standard icon — a little “i” — that it will add to most online ads that use demographics and behavioral data to tell consumers what is happening.
Jules Polonetsky, the co-chairman and director of the Future of Privacy Forum, an advocacy group that helped create the symbol, compared it to the triangle made up of three arrows that tells consumers that something is recyclable.
The idea was “to come up with a recycling symbol — people will look at it, and once they know what it is, they’ll get it, and always get it,” Mr. Polonetsky said.
Most major companies running online ads are expected to begin adding the icon to their ads by midsummer, along with phrases like “Why did I get this ad?”
When consumers click on the icon, a white “i” surrounded by a circle on a blue background, they will be taken to a page explaining how the advertiser uses their Web surfing history and demographic profile to send them certain ads.
The symbol will be introduced Wednesday by Mr. Polonetsky’s group and a coalition of trade groups that have been vocal about fending off government regulation.
It comes amid a fierce debate about privacy. Congress has shown interest in the subject. And Federal Trade Commission officials have been vocal, saying that privacy policies of companies are not clear or accessible enough to protect visitors, and debating whether online data is being used appropriately.