WFA publish behavioral targeting principles

Behavioral advertising & privacy concerns have been a topic of healthy debate lately. Now the WFA have published 'principles' which the IAB locally support.

The issue at hand is regarding the use of cookies to more effectively target 'in market' consumers. Data is captured by following IP address activity across sites, advertising and content. The use of this as a method of targeting has grown exponentially over the past 18 months in Australia.

There are two schools of thought:
1/ Consumers are largely unaware of how this data is used and therefore it's an invasion of privacy
OR
2/ By tapping into behavioral data, we are actually providing a better experience by serving more relevant advertising messages

Personally, unsurprisingly I'm in the second camp. Having said that I do believe it's important to be as transparent and authentic as possible in this space (actually in all marketing). Therefore, I encourage you to embrace the 'Seven Principles' below.

WFA proposed Principles for self-regulation in online behavioural advertising

1. The Education Principle
–Calls for organisations to educate the public about online behavioral
advertising
•Individuals
•Businesses
–Industry-based Web sites
•How online behavioral advertising works
•Consumer choices

2.The Transparency Principle
–Deploy multiple mechanisms for disclosing and informing public:
•Data collection
•Use of practices associated with online behavioral advertising
–Companies collecting and using data
•New links and disclosures on Web page / ads

3. The Consumer Control Principle
–Users of Web sites for which behavioral advertising data is collected can
choose whether the data can be used for such purposes
•Choice provided by companies collecting data
•Choice mechanism at Web site or industry developed site
–Service Providers
•Enhanced notice

4. The Data Security Principle
–Requires organizations to provide reasonable security for data collected and
used
–Limited retention

5. The Material Changes Principle
–Directs organizations to obtain consent before data is used for a materially
different purpose than originally agreed to by consumers

6. The Children’s Principle
–Children’s data collected for online behavioral advertising
•Merits heightened protection
•Applies to activities set forth in the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act

7. The Accountability Principle
–For organizations representing the online behavioral advertising ecosystem
•Support industry self– regulatory development
•Continue to strengthen accountability