[ccebook.cn]The World in 2010

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Nov 13th 2009
A battle looms over tracking consumers’ online habits
Alamy_Anna Barribal_TFL
The issue has been simmering for quite some time. But in 2010 the debate over how advertisers, web
companies and others monitor individuals’ use of the internet will reach boiling-point. Politicians in America will
debate legislation that would give consumers more knowledge of the information being collected about them
online—and more control over how it is subsequently used. Advertisers and web companies will push back,
arguing that they can be trusted to police themselves.
At least three trends will ensure that online privacy commands plenty of attention in the coming year. The
first is the rise of so-called “behavioural targeting”, in which websites gather detailed data about the surfing
habits of users and crunch this information to help determine which adverts to show surfers. Although this
approach is still less widely used than, say, contextual targeting, which automatically links adverts to search
terms on services such as Yahoo! and Google, it will become more popular as firms try to squeeze greater
returns from their advertising costs in a tough economy.
Another trend driving privacy concerns is the spectacular growth of online social
networks, such as Facebook. These networks capture a large amount of personal
information about users and are seeking to leverage these data to generate revenue.
Canada’s privacy watchdog has already taken Facebook to task for shortcomings in
the way it handles user data. More regulatory scrutiny is likely in 2010.
Advertisers are
no doubt hoping
their initiative
will placate
politicians
The proliferation of web-enabled mobile phones such as Apple’s iPhone is also ringing
alarm bells among privacy champions. An explosion of demand for these devices—Apple has already sold 30m
iPhones around the world—has opened up the prospect of advertisers tracking users’ movements and serving
them ads based on their whereabouts. For now, most advertisers and phone networks are wary of exploiting
data in this way. But firms will still seek to profit from information gleaned from third-party applications that
sit on top of smart-phones’ operating systems. Together with new apps for social-networking services, these
create another way of tracking consumers’ digital habits.
Much of the information is used in ways that are beneficial to those who provide it. But it is often unclear to
web surfers exactly what data are being gathered about them and how this is being used. Critics point out
that users are frequently forced to provide data when visiting sites, rather than being allowed to choose not
to.
In a bid to calm such concerns, industry groups representing advertisers in America will implement a series of
principles in 2010 that govern how their members collect data online. Among other things, websites will have
to display an icon that takes users to a page which describes the data being gathered about them and gives
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