Online Behavior Used to Tailor Ads
By Catherine Rampell
Privacy, consumer and technology groups yesterday proposed the creation of a Do Not Track list similar to the Do Not Call phone list, allowing people to prevent companies from tracking which Web sites they visit.
This proposal comes as large Internet companies are looking to increase the tracking of users' online behavior to tailor ads to their interests. Nine groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Consumer Federation of America and the World Privacy Forum, submitted the proposal to the Federal Trade Commission ahead of a two-day conference on behavioral advertising.
The Do Not Track list is modeled after the popular Do Not Call registry maintained by the FTC. Since 2003, telemarketers have been barred from calling numbers submitted to the list, which has about 145 million numbers.
"Consumers obviously know the Do Not Call list and have reacted well to it," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. "As an analogy it helps socialize an important concern and idea."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103101000.html?hpid=topnews