advertising, notably banners, rich media and the growing area of online video,” says David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Behavioral Targeting Attitudes: The Privacy Issues. “A primary reason for their lukewarm attitude is Internet advertising’s irrelevance, with messages peripheral to their current interests and needs.”

However, with its promise of relevant advertising and greater revenues from ad inventory, behaviorally targeted advertising offers a ray of hope for online advertisers and Web publishers.

“And yet, collecting the visitor data needed for online ad targeting is raising concern among Internet privacy groups, the FTC, state governments—and, most importantly, consumers,” says Mr. Hallerman.

For the public, government agencies and the mainstream media, behavioral targeting can represent all the ways that companies appear to be violating individual privacy on the Internet.

As the FTC indicated in its report, “Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade,” while behavioral targeting “may result in more relevant advertisements being served to consumers, it also may implicate data security and privacy risks if the underlying information used to target consumers is not adequately secured or is misused by companies in the marketing chain.”

The report went on to say, “Given the amount of information—personal and otherwise—about consumers that is likely to be collected, used and stored, privacy will continue to be a top consumer protection priority for the FTC.”

“While Internet companies argue that behavioral targeting benefits Internet users because it greatly increases the relevance of the advertising they see online, perception is reality,” says Mr. Hallerman.

Consumers are confused.

The second annual “State of the Media Democracy” study from Deloitte and the Harrison Group found that while 66% of US Internet users said they would click on additional Internet ads if they were better targeted and 67% would be willing to accept more ads in exchange for free and valuable content, a similar number—65%—called Internet advertising more intrusive than print ads.

Making a strong argument for behavioral targeting, a TNS Global survey commissioned by TRUSTe found that 72.4% of Internet users “agree” or “strongly agree” that irrelevant Internet advertising was intrusive and annoying.

“As people make the Internet an increasing part of their daily lives, privacy issues will become more of a battleground,” says Mr. Hallerman.

However, among marketers and Web publishers attuned to consumer concerns, a good portion of these issues can likely be resolved through a clear process of informed consent.

“In other words,” says Mr. Hallerman, “ask the audience for permission.”

Just like marketers have learned to do with e-mail.

Explore all the pros and cons of this controversial new advertising tactic, download the eMarketer report, Behavioral Targeting Attitudes: The Privacy Issues, today Source: emarketer.com

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