Canadians who get creeped out by web ads that seem to know a littletoo much about their personal habits should have access in thecoming months to an opt-out tool that will help fight the effect ofso-called behavioural advertising. IAB Canada, a non-profit association representing the digitalmarketing and advertising industry, is currently in negotiationswith the Digital Advertising Alliance in the U.S. to adopt itsself-regulating program, which is already in place south of theborder. A blue icon with a lower-case "i" denotes ads that are appearingbecause of behavioural advertising practices, based on a user'spast web history. The icon links to aboutads.info, which includesan opt-out feature used by about 160 ad agencies, ad networks andcompanies, including the likes of American Express, AT&T, Bankof America, Conde Nast, Dell, Delta, Forbes, Google, Microsoft,Verizon and Yahoo! 'I think just by daily culture now most people understand thatthey're being tracked online it's not because they've read theterms and conditions.' Jennifer Stoddart, privacy commissioner "They're about two years ahead of us, so they're looking at otherthings now and they're moving onto mobile, etc. but we have toget this in place in Canada first," said outgoing IAB Canadapresident Paula Gignac. "It'll certainly be I don't believe any later than (the thirdquarter) of 2012." Behavioural advertising is typically based on web browser"cookies," files that reside on a user's computer and containinformation about usage history and habits. For example, visiting awebsite or launching a search about tourist sites in Montreal couldtrigger more travel-related ads as you browse the web. Advertiserssay it's a good way to get relevant ads to users but many feel thepractice is an invasion of privacy, even if the ad companies don'treceive personal information through cookies. Gignac said there's been no resistance within the industry as IABCanada has moved closer to allowing users to opt-out of behaviouraltracking. "There wasn't any push back at all," she said. "Advertisers,agencies, publishers, networks really realized that the consumer isin control and they have to be good to the consumer." In December, Canada's privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart,released guidelines for the advertising industry saying Canadiansmust have an easy way to say no to behavioural ads. She called theU.S. opt-out system and the move to implementing it here "a very,very positive development." "A huge majority of Canadians think that internet companies shouldask for their permission to be tracked online, and so part of ourbehavioural advertising initiative was to respond to this and sayvery clearly how the privacy law should apply online in thesesituations," Stoddart said. "So we're saying it's up to those who are using tracking devices ofany kind to ask for the consumer's consent." Websites ask for consent in legalese Websites typically do ask for consent to track user behaviours, butthose requests are usually buried within the long pages oflegalese-laden privacy policies or terms and conditions. "We know privacy policies and terms and conditions areunfortunately not written always as clearly as they should,"Stoddart said, but added that many users appear to know about thetracking practice and realize it's going on. "I think just by daily culture now most people understand thatthey're being tracked online it's not because they've read theterms and conditions." There are a few existing ways for internet users to stop seeingmost behavioural ads as they surf the web. The latest versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla'sFirefox web browsers have do-not-track features, while Google hasan optional download for its Chrome browser called "Keep MyOpt-Outs." Security software maker AVG has also incorporated asimilar feature into its free anti-virus software, which is turnedon as a default setting. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as GPS GSM Navigator Manufacturer , China Google Android 7 Tablet PC Computer Netbook UMPC, and more. For more , please visit 10.1 Android 2.3 Tablet today!
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