<font size="2"><strong><font color="#001667"><em>Content rules? Rules for ads, Big
Brother and nerds</em></font></strong><em> </em><br></font><br><font size="-1"><a href="http://www.connect-world.com/articles/e-letter.php">http://www.connect-world.com/articles/e-letter.php</a><br><br>Content is
king - or so they say. Still, notes here and there in the international press,
blogs, newsletters and chats with friends make one wonder where content's
kingdom is - in the UK or Nepal. I would bet on Nepal.<br><br>I have long had
doubts about the revenues most content can generate. The problem is not content;
it is the willingness, the ability, of enough people to pay for it on a regular
basis. <br><br>There is enough content produced to drown in, but much of it -
look at YouTube - is free. It's hard to compete with <em>free</em>; the price is
right and it sets a mark that all other content competes with. Content costs
money and consumers don't like to pay. <br><br>There is a time-tested remedy for
situations such as these - advertising. Advertisers are learning to love
audiences they can target precisely - and that is what online service providers
can offer. <br><br>To target ads, advertisers accumulate data about visits made
to the sites of third-party advertising network members, and correlate
consumers' surfing habits with their personal product tastes and the likelihood
that certain types of advertising will appeal to them. The same data, though,
can also let advertisers draw conclusions about a wide range of personal
behaviours that many consumers would not like others to know about - conclusions
that can be embarrassing, erroneous, dead wrong, or even dangerous. Data
gatherers are often guilty - intentionally or not - of outrageous invasion of
privacy.<br><br>What are advertisers to do? What are the ethical ramifications?
What do advertisers know about you that you wish they didn't? What if this
information is misused or falls into the wrong hands? <br><br>A press release
last week from the NAI speaks to these issues. From a different point of view,
these are some of the same issues I spoke of in my eLetter at the end of March -
about some of the risks inherent in the growth of Internet access and the
Information Society. <br><br>The NAI addresses the problem of dealing with the
sensitive personal data that Web sites and advertising networks gather by
tracking visitors to their sites. <br><br>The NAI, the <em>Network Advertising
Initiative</em>, which counts Google's DoubleClick, Yahoo's BlueLithium, AOL's
Advertising.com and Tacoda among its members, is a "cooperative of online
marketing and analytics companies committed to building consumer awareness and
establishing responsible business and data management practices and standards".
They published a draft (open for public comment until June 12 - <a class="link_blue" title="http://www.connect-world.com/e-letter/lt/t_go.php?i=12&e=OTE1OQ==&l=-http--www.networkadvertising.org/networks/NAI_Principles_2008_Draft_for_Public.pdf" href="http://www.connect-world.com/e-letter/lt/t_go.php?i=12&e=OTE1OQ==&l=-http--www.networkadvertising.org/networks/NAI_Principles_2008_Draft_for_Public.pdf">http://www.networkadvertising.org/networks/NAI_Principles_2008_Draft_for_Public.pdf</a>)
of a "<em>Self-Regulatory Code of Conduct for Online Behavioral
Advertising</em>". The draft is the NAI's response to proposals made by the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission's last year.<br><br>The NAI's aims to protect the
consumer's privacy, to control the abuse of OBA (Third-Party <em>Online
Behavioural Advertising</em>), provide consumers with safeguards that inform
them when OBA is being used, and allow them to opt out - to deny permission for
its use.<br><br>Few people that are not involved in online marketing are aware
of the systems in place for third-party online behavioural advertising. The
systems come in a variety of flavours, but the principles are the same. Online
advertisers often take part in <em>advertising networks</em>. The networks
maintain databases of all the users that visit the sites of any of their
members. They use cookies and other technologies that let them identify Web
surfers that have visited any of the sites of a given network's members.
<br><br>Typically, when users visit the site of a member of a third-party
marketing network they are automatically linked to a third-party ad server site.
The ad server identifies the visiting computer and sends it a 'cookie' - a bit
of text that is saved by the computer in a cookie file. The ad server then
records the user's access in its database. Every time a consumer accesses the
site of one of the advertising network's members, the ad server records the
visit. In time, ad servers can collect a sizeable amount of data concerning the
consumer's habits, so whenever the ad server detects one of its own cookies in a
visiting computer, it will check its files and send back banner adds most likely
to be of interest to the consumer. The advertising network site currently
visited by the consumer will then display the banner.<br><br>It all sounds very
innocent and, in truth, most often is - advertisers can narrowly target their
ads at the consumers most likely to be interested. On the other hand, when the
information that is gathered goes beyond normal marketing needs it invades the
consumer's privacy. The NAI's proposed guidelines sets forth an ethical
framework for dealing with information gathered from members of, as they call
them, 'restricted' and 'sensitive' consumer segments. <br><br>The NAI prohibits
members from targeting online behavioural advertising to sensitive consumer
segments and to children less than 13 years of age. "Restricted and Sensitive
Consumer Segments" include, but are not limited to: <br><br>1. Certain
medical/health conditions–<br>A. HIV/ AIDS status<br>B. Sexually-related
conditions (e.g., sexually transmitted diseases, erectile dysfunction)<br>C.
Psychiatric conditions<br>D. Cancer status<br>E. Abortion-related<br><br>2.
Certain personal life information–<br>A. Sexual behaviour/orientation/identity
(i.e., Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender)<br>B. Criminal victim status (e.g.,
rape victim status)<br><br>There is another list of "potentially restricted"
consumers. These are not automatically excluded, but NAI members are expected to
evaluate this data within the context it will be used. This category includes -
but, once again, is not limited to data regarding: age /birth date, addictions
(e.g., drugs, alcohol, gambling), alien status or nationality, criminal history,
death, disability, ethnic affiliation, marital status, philosophical beliefs,
political affiliation or opinions, pregnancy, racial identification, religious
affiliation or lack thereof and trade union membership.<br><br>This is an
explosive list of personal characteristics, but it is far from exhaustive. It is
great as far as it goes, but it only goes as far as a handful of NAI members -
and I am certain there is a longer list of equally explosive characteristics
that can be data mined that are not even covered. <br><br>Some of NAI's members
are gigantic; even so, they cover only a small percentage of the consumers on
the Web. Then too, the rules depend upon a great deal of case-by-case judgement
by the members and the temptation to interpret the rules leniently, loosely, is
as great as the potential rewards for doing so. Some of these 'sensitive'
markets - racial groups, sexual preference groups - are enormous and highly
lucrative. <br><br>I suspect that, at best, the NAI rules will prevent only the
crassest misuse of data - its greatest strength will come from the consumer
'opt-out' and the disclosure procedures to which members must adhere. I am
certain that much of the online behavioural advertising will just skim the line
between the ordinarily tasteless and downright bad taste - sanctimoniously
defended by their rigid adherence to the most liberal possible interpretations
of the rules.<br><br>The NAI rules are a step in the right direction, but
without legally enforced adherence by <em>all</em> online behavioural
advertisers to a comprehensive set of broadly debated rules, Big Brother is an
ad agency nerd fondling a database</font>