Should Your ISP Be Allowed to Serve You Spyware?

By Chloe Albanesius
4/25/2008 4:16:00 PM

Should your ISP know what you're really doing online in order to serve up relevant ad content?

The Washington D.C.-based Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) is concerned about the privacy implications of such information being passed to advertisers, and announced Friday that it has created a new internal working group to examine the relationship between Internet service providers and advertising partners.

It's been a tough road for behavioral advertising lately. The merger of Google and DoubleClick faced a barrage of criticism and regulatory scrutiny, Facebook was forced to scale back its Beacon advertising platform after user outrage, and consumer groups have requested a "do not track" list that would let allow computer users stop advertisers from collecting information about them.

The average Internet user is probably not aware of how much information is actually being collected about them, but that data can be used by Internet companies to display targeted ads -- much like Google's AdSense service anonymously scans e-mails to produce ads that are in line with their contents.

"Consumer groups and many in the anti-spyware industry have raised concerns over the privacy implications of behavioral targeting, especially in cases where ISPs partner with targeting companies in order to give access to a user's entire traffic stream with little or no notice and consent," ASC said in a statement. "Many of these practices are 'borderline' acceptable practices that avoid detection by anti-spyware products."

ASC is a coalition of anti-spyware software companies, academics, and consumer groups. It is the brainchild of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which has been on the forefront of many anti-spyware battles.

CDT last year encouraged the FTC to draft principles regarding online behavioral advertising, which the agency did in December.

"In some cases, spyware tactics and behavioral advertising practices can effectively be one and the same because spyware is being used as a means to track consumers' Internet activity for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising," CDT wrote in an October FTC filing.

Six of the commission's 11 spyware cases have dealt with the practice of tracking Internet activity for the purpose of serving advertising, and in two of those cases this tracking was considered part of an unfair act, CDT said.

The new ASC group will work to determine if revisions to current report or additional best practices regarding online advertising are necessary, ASC said.