Google, Yahoo and other major Internet advertising companies are developing new ways to tailor ads by tracking users’ online history — and can even auction off individual customers to advertisers in the few milliseconds between a person clicking a link and the page appearing on their screen.
But with Internet advertisers increasingly adept at targeting individuals based on the digital bread crumbs they leave as they click through the Web, “behavioral advertising” is also attracting greater scrutiny from government regulators, politicians and interest groups concerned about user privacy.
Internet companies say such targeting pays off for consumers and advertisers, because it is more likely to serve up ads people are actually interested in. Critics counter that most Americans do not want advertising tailored to their interests, particularly when it requires tracking their online movements.
“It’s kind of like the Wild West out there with behavioral advertising, where clearly the technology is miles ahead of our ability to regulate all the things that are going on,” said Conrad MacKerron of the San Francisco-based As You Sow Foundation, which advocates for corporate responsibility. The foundation will offer a shareholder proposal at Google’s annual meeting May 13 asking for stronger privacy rules for personal data collected for behavioral ads.
Google launched what it calls “interest-based advertising” last year, saying it would make advertising more relevant by tracking users and categorizing their interests in topics such as sports, gardening, cars and pets. “Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers,” Susan Wojcicki, a senior Google executive, wrote on a company blog post.
Sensitive to privacy concerns, Google offers a Web page (google.com/ads/preferences) where users can opt out of the advertising cookie that tracks their movements. The service remains in beta mode, a Google spokesman said last week….