Behavioural advertising laws explained

Mark Rabe, MD and VP sales, Yahoo!

As the newest medium for expression and human interaction, the internet adds a new layer to some of the policy questions companies have long faced, age-old matters like privacy, personal rights, speech, freedom, safety, and access for people of different abilities. These are not simply abstract issues, and have a real impact on real people.

This is why signatories to the IAB’s Good Practice Principles are taking online privacy very seriously, ensuring consumers have the power to choose how their personal data is used.

It’s no secret that online interest-based advertising is a good thing for advertisers who want to target certain groups of consumers and of course a good thing for publishers and networks whose business models are based on advertising revenues.

But what about consumers? What do they want? Well, consumers actually prefer relevant advertising. We know this because they “vote” with their clicks and interest-based ads perform better overall, and the research results earlier in this guide also serve to illustrate their desire for more targeted advertising.

To be clear, data is used for a number of reasons: To improve products and services, protect consumers and advertisers from fraud, preserve security, meet legal and reporting obligations and offer customized and relevant content and advertising.

For online interest-based advertising to be truly effective, consumers need to understand it and feel comfortable with how it works. Building user trust has and will continue to help create the right environment for the future growth of online advertising – and in particular, it should be front and centre of any online media owner’s business model where interest-based targeting is concerned.

Putting our users’ trust at the heart of everything you do should be the only approach in this digital era. For over a decade, Yahoo! has led the way in establishing a relationship of trust with our users and sponsoring responsible self-regulation including industry collaborations like the IAB’s Good Practice Principles for Online Behavioural Advertising.

Initiatives like these are an important starting point for safeguarding and educating consumers about their choices. The issue of online privacy needs to achieve C-level, top management buy-in in every relevant business – where businesses own, live and breathe their own policies. In other words, privacy becomes business as usual. Consumers need to know that we are taking their needs seriously and treating their data with the respect that it deserves.

Next page