Behavioural advertising under the spotlight

The Government and legislators should clarify what personal data comprises, delegates at the Westminster e-Forum on behavioural ad targeting on Tuesday heard.

The need for this was highlighted as concerns about the use of Phorm’s Webwise net monitoring software caused huge controversy again.

Internet advertising has been used for years and is the reason why so much content is free or richer.

Meglena Kuneva, European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, said in March this year: “Personal data is the new oil of the internet and the new currency of the digital world.”

But the latest technologies allow companies to gather much more data in which to profile internet users’ interests. Some, such as Webwise, do this by tracking the kinds of websites people visit.

Ms Kuneva said to ensure the public's trust was kept there was a clear need for companies to be transparent about data collection.

And although Marc Burgess, Phorm’s senior vice president for technology, reiterated the company’s insistence that the data it gathers is completely anonymised, Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group said making such technologies 'opt out' rather than 'opt in' was unfair to individuals.

He said: “There is no control over what is going on behind the scenes because [data from web browsing] is not classified as personal data.”