The Homa Files

Excerpted from New York Times, “Use of Web Tracking Tool Raises Privacy Issue in Britain”, by Kevin J. O’Brien, April 15, 2009

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The European Commission threatened Britain with sanctions for allowing an Internet service provider to use a new advertising technology to track the Web movements of customers.

The case could become a test for the limits of ads that aim at online behavior. Supporters of the practice say it has the potential to transform advertising by allowing marketers to show Internet users only ads that are considered relevant to them, based on their surfing habits.

But the technique has come under scrutiny because of concern that personal privacy could be violated as companies seek more specific data on individual users. 

Many companies involved in Internet advertising, including Google and other social networking services, use behavioral targeting. But because this new technology, “Phorm”, receives actual Web-use records from service providers, it says its technology is more accurate.

An Internet association that has led the protest against Phorm in Britain, Open Rights Group in London, said the government had ignored European law to accommodate businesses interested in developing lucrative Internet advertising models.

Edit by DAF

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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/business/global/15privacy.html?_r=2&ref=business&pagewanted=print

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This entry was posted on May 13, 2009 at 7:17 am and is filed under Internet - Soc Networking, Internet Marketing - eCommerce -. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.