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If a coalition of privacy, technology and consumer groups have their way, an Internet equivalent to the U.S.  "Do Not Call" phone list will soon allow Web users to stop online advertisers from tracking their browsing habits and delivering targeted advertising to them. On Wednesday the coalition asked The Federal Trade Commission to implement a program (.PDF file) that would make it easy for consumers to stop targeted online advertising. Today and tomorrow the FTC is holding a workshop and forum on Internet behavioral targeting, the practice of using consumer Web browsing histories to show relevant online advertisements. Jon Leibowitz, the FTC's commissioner, has expressed concern over the methods online advertising networks are increasingly using to gather data about consumers Web browsing habits. "When you’re surfing the Internet, you never know who is peering over your shoulder or how many marketers are watching," Leibowitz said during the forum in New York. How Such a List Might Work The proposed list would neither remove entirely or reduce the amount of online advertising seen by those who sign up, but would instead display ads aimed at a generalized audience. Today Time's Warner's AOL announced that it will have such a list in place for its users by the end of the year. AOL's system will allow consumers to access opt-out lists maintained by some of the biggest online advertising networks, and the company will inform its customers how the system will work over the next few months. In what may be a small concession to marketers, AOL plans to show its customers that choosing to share some personal data with advertisers can be a good thing. AOL hopes its new opt-out system will be embraced enthusiastically by customers who can choose how much information they wish to share. "We think tailoring advertising content in a way that is useful is a good proposition," said AOL's chief privacy officer Jules Polonetsky in a recent New York Times article. "Instead of having interruptive ads, instead of jarring things that will grab your attention, things are hopefully tailored to be suitable to your experience," said Polonetsky. Monitoring Practices The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for scrutinizing advertising for unfair or deceptive practices, and its two day New York event will be attended by privacy officials from Microsoft, AOL, Google and Yahoo, along  with behavioral targeting experts who deal with the delivery of advertisements reflecting consumers Web browsing habits. The central question the forum members will address during various sessions and on panels is what the ideal balance is between protecting personal information and gathering information for the purpose of delivering targeted online advertisements. The idea of a Internet do-not-track list is not a new one, however the commission has been reluctant to consider operating one for fear that it might in some way impede the tremendous growth and innovation the Web has seen since its inception, according to Eileen Harrington, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "We all love the Internet, and the last thing we want to do is suggest that the government would step in here in a way that would take that away from consumers," said Harrington. Tracking Cookies Leibowitz told forum attendees that consumers should have more say in their own Web browsing records. "People should have dominion over their computers. The current ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in online tracking and profiling has to end," said Leibowitz. The Case Against The online advertising industry contains many who feel that the FTC should not attempt a do-not-track list. They cite existing Web browser controls and third-party extensions or utilities which already allow consumers in the know to block nearly all online advertising, and fear governmental regulation could limit Internet growth. Addressing solutions to those who don't realize they are being tracked online may represent one of the biggest hurdles, however. Methods to Stop Profiling Today the average person visiting a Web site may not be aware that as they browse more often than not data about the sites they visit is being tracked. To many technically savvy Internet users, however, the practice of using and blocking tracking cookies, small computer files containing a variety of information about browsing, is old news. To members of the WebmasterWorld discussion forums, a popular community of mostly advanced level webmasters and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) professionals, picking and choosing which Web sites to share personal information with is only a matter of adjusting the built-in cookie settings within their browsers, or using one of many utilities and extensions which allow complete control over what gets tracked when visiting Web sites. Many who have been involved with the Web since its inception recognize the innately global nature of the Internet, and see a difficult road ahead for any governmental regulation coming from only one or a handful of nations, and point to the trouble the U.S. government has had in its efforts to control online gambling. Recent Online Advertising Acquisitions Over the past four years the amount of money spent for online advertising has more than doubled, according  to Web publishing trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau, which expects it to top the $20 billion mark this year. Advertisers appear to be embracing the more targeted messages they can put forth on the Internet, and many have shifted spending from more traditional media such as print publications, radio and television. In July AOL purchased Tacoda, an advertising network company that uses behavioral targeting and which has for the past year offered an opt-out option. Earlier this year Internet search leader Google agreed to purchase online advertising network DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, an acquisition which Leibowitz and the FTC are currently investigating around potential anti-competitive concerns. Other large online advertising acquisitions this year have included Microsoft's $6 billion deal for aQuantive, Yahoo's $680 million deal for Right Media, and AOL's deal with Tacoda for a supposed $275 million. Plans for Internet "Do Not Track" List Questioned A total of nine groups jointly submitted the proposal to the FTC, including: Since 2003 over 145 million phone numbers have been added to the Do Not Call registry operated by the FTC, which has widely been seen as a successful program. Implementing and maintaining a similar registry for Internet users is an altogether different endeavor according to groups such as the Network Advertising Initiative which oppose the list and favor self-regulation combined with the use of existing technology. J. Trevor Hughes, the group's executive director, explains: "We think this proposal is redundant and overwrought," he said in a recent article in The Washington Post. A press release details further the group's opposition to the proposed list. "This proposal for a government-run blacklist would break both the basic functionality and economic models of most, if not all, e-commerce and content-driven consumer websites," the press release noted. "It is disturbing to think that, under the proposal, the government would step in with a downloaded application that would need to 'call home' to the government on a regular basis," according to the NAI press release. Related Links:
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10:47 am on Nov. 1, 2007 (utc 0)