FTC suggests tighter control of online advertising practices

Date: 06/11/2007

On 1st November, FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz spoke at the FTC forum on "Behavioral Advertising, Tracking and Technology" and suggested that tighter control should be introduced on behavioral online advertising. He stated that "We enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to place a parental buffer between advertisers and our children - but the rise of sophisticated behavioral marketing techniques is eroding this parental control."

The two-day public forum discussed the issue of ‘behavioral targeting', an online marketing technique that delivers advertising based on recent activity online.

Representatives from industry, consumer advocate groups, technology experts, academia and staff of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection debated the trade off between consumers' privacy and the desire to collect personal data for targeted advertising.

In the context of online advertising to children, Mr Leibowitz stated that: "All the online tracking and targeting is especially worrisome when it involves our children and teens. 93 percent of American teens age 12 to 17 use the Internet - and 55 percent of these online teens use social networking sites. Internet use by children even younger is growing, as well."

Mr Leibowitz further stated that the FTC would not hesitate to pass regulation on the issue, saying that: "The market alone may not be able to resolve all the issues inherent in behavioral marketing. So at the Commission, we will listen closely to what online marketers are doing, how they are doing it - and we will think about how to ensure all the wonders of the Internet while respecting consumers' sense of privacy. We also will continue to monitor industry behavior - and if we see problematic practices, the Commission won't hesitate to bring cases."

He further proposed the introduction of standardized privacy policy statements, privacy opt-ins rather than opt-outs and encouragement of more competition to protect privacy among stakeholders.

Source: Advertising Education Forum

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