Web advertising guidelines launched

A set of guidelines has been drawn up concerning targeted or behavioural advertising, which has courted controversy since its inception.

The world's leading web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as well as Phorm, which is pioneering targeted advertising, have signed up to the guidelines which are intended to provide customers with greater protection and privacy.

The code of practice was drawn up by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and it focuses specifically on targeted advertising, which tailors advertising based on browsing history.

In the UK, ISPs such as BT have been trialling such advertising.

Under the IAB proposals, all online behavioural-advertising platforms must clearly inform a consumer before taking any data and they must provide a way for users to decline behavioural advertising and preferably seek a consumer's consent.

Companies using such advertising must also provide information explaining what they do with the data.

Last year, the Foundation for Information Policy Research labeled Phorm's targeted advertising as "highly intrusive" and "illegal".

But there is widespread disagreement about whether the system infringes privacy laws.

"There is no personally identifiable information. They don't have your name, address or phone number. Instead, search terms are linked to a random cookie number in a general geographic area," said Nate Elliott, a principal researcher at Forrester.

However, Alexander Hanff, who is fighting for greater consumer protection has since written to the IAB seeking clarification on a number of points.

Hanff argues that it is not enough to let customers know that ISPs or web companies are collecting their data. Instead, customers should be asked for permission, he wrote.

Another privacy campaigner, Richard Clayton, said that the guidelines miss one of the most important points; the opt-in debate.

Privacy campaigners argue that these schemes should be offered on an opt-in basis, thereby giving the consumer the choice to participate.

"The bottom line is that if I'm prepared to tell advertisers where I browse and what adverts I want then all well and good, but I don't want them snooping on me," Clayton said.

According to the IAB, behavioural advertising makes up about 20 per cent of the online display advertising market.