Bill Would Outlaw Targeted Web Ads
If New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has his way Web companies that track a user's online behavior in order to target them ads would be breaking the law. Brodsky recently drafted a bill that would require Web advertising companies, such as AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, to get a Web surfer's permission before tracking Web movements and displaying ads based on those movements.
Surprisingly, according to published reports, the Brodsky has an unlikely supporter - Microsoft.
Brodsky Bill Has National Implications
If the bill became New York state law it would have broad impact on all U.S. online advertisers - no matter the state. Essentially any Web site or online advertiser could be subject to New York laws if a New York citizen visited their site. Therefore Web sites and online advertisers, if they wanted to avoid the wrath of New York state, would have to comply with New York online advertising laws.
Microsoft Fights for Web Surfers' Privacy, Really!
The companies hit hardest by this bill would be the major online advertisers Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL Time Warner. Their networks of sites routinely provide advertising based on what you type into their search engines and keywords that appear on the services you are using.
Not so surprising is AOL, Google, and representatives for the online advertising trade association Internet Advertising Bureau are against the bill. Interestingly, Microsoft supports Brodsky's bill. In fact, Microsoft lobbyists are asking Brodsky to broaden the bill to include regulation that would limit the way companies such as Google serve ads around the Web.
Microsoft: Privacy Friend or Google Foe
Privacy concerns about Google have been heightened ever since the Internet behemoth bought online advertising Goliath DoubleClick. It doesn't take much of an imagination to consider Microsoft is hoping Brodsky's bill will impact the Google does business - and not for the better. To be fair, Microsoft has a track record for being proponent for Web surfer privacy.
Whether or not Brodsky's bill has any hope of being passed is not yet known. Also murky is what Microsoft's true intent is by supporting the bill and asking the New York assemblyman to expand it.
Without a doubt the online advertising industry is a nebulous one with hundreds (if not thousands) of companies (aside from AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo) engaged in questionable online advertising practices. We'll see if Brodsky's bill is a catalyst to change for the better or just evolves into a lobbyist's volleyball used to hurt one company and help another.
PC World's Marketplace
PC World's Free Whitepapers
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
This is an important issue of civil liberties/privacy. Why should online companies be entitled to spy on my use of the Internet, and then use that information to market products and services to me, based on my usage patterns? This seems inherantly unAmerican to me. Kudos to Brodsky for taking on this issue --and I never thought I would say this -- but congratulations to Microsoft for taking the right stand.