Reactions to Proposed FTC Regs Run the Gamut

Here's an interesting article that ran recently in DM News this week. Response to FTC Proposed Principles The reporter, Ellen Keohane, gathered a variety of perspectives on the FTC'€™s proposed self-regulatory principles for the online behavioral advertising industry. Although not entirely surprising, the responses to the proposed regulations varied greatly: The advertisers interviewed stated that these standards were already being followed by all of the major players, while the Executive Director for the Center for Digital Democracy said that the guidelines were far too vague and depended on the goodwill of an industry whose first priority is to collect and harvest as much user data [as possible]

This dichotomy of perspectives is just another example of how complex it will be to find a balance between consumer privacy and access to content supported by online advertising.  In a series of forums recently, one very clear point of agreement resonated with me.  Some people may use the technology in an unscrupulous and harmful way and both sides of the debate agree to a great extent what many of those practices include.  Profiling based upon personal health conditions, religious affiliation and sexual preference to name a few, is not acceptable to the vast majority of consumers. Let'€™s look for those areas of agreement and start developing ways to address the truly egregious practices first. In securing some "€œeasy wins"€, we can learn more about how to tackle the gray areas of behavioral targeting more productively.

- Scott