Question 3.94

3.94 Online behavioral advertising.

The Federal Trade Commission Staff Report “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising” defines behavioral advertising as “the tracking of a consumer’s online activities over time—including the searches the consumer has conducted, the webpages visited and the content viewed—to deliver advertising targeted to the individual consumer’s interests.” The report suggests four governing concepts for online behavioral advertising:

  1. Transparency and control: when companies collect information from consumers for advertising, they should tell the consumers about how the data will be collected, and consumers should be given a choice about whether to allow the data to be collected.
  2. Security and data retention: data should be kept secure and should be retained only as long as needed.
  3. Privacy: before data are used in a way that differs from how the companies originally said they would use the information, companies should obtain consent from consumers.
  4. Sensitive data: consent should be obtained before using any sensitive data.36

Write a report discussing your opinions concerning online behavioral advertising and the four governing concepts. Pay particular attention to issues related to the ethical collection and use of statistical data.