The PMA Law Conference, on Nov.15-16, will cover in detail an inportant two-day Town Hall meeting of the FTC held earlier in November  which brings together consumer advocates, industry representatives, technology experts, and academics to address the consumer protection issues raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising – or “behavioral advertising.”  The FTC meeting will be held November 1-2, 2007 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. It is free and open to the public.

In its press release  the FTC stated that technology advances and the evolution of business models since that time have raised concerns by consumer advocates, privacy experts, and others about the implications of data collection in online advertising now and in the future. Recently, several consumer privacy advocates, as well as the State of New York, sent letters to the FTC urging it to examine the effects of behavioral advertising on consumer privacy.

Topics -to be covered include  How does online behavioral advertising work? What types of companies play a role in this market?

• What types of data are collected? Is the data personally identifiable or anonymous? Even when the data is anonymous, is it, or could it be, combined with personally identifiable data from other sources?
• How is the data used, and by whom? Is it shared or sold? Is the data used for any purposes other than to target advertising?
• How has the online advertising market, and specifically behavioral advertising, changed since 2000?
• What security protections are companies providing for the consumer data that they collect, use, transfer, or store?
• What do consumers understand about the collection of their information online for use in advertising?
• Are companies disclosing their online data-collection practices to consumers? Are these disclosures an appropriate and effective way to inform the public about these practices? Are companies offering consumers choices about how data is collected and used?
• What standards do, or should, govern practices related to online behavioral advertising? Are companies following the Network Advertising Initiative Principles, originally issued in 2000 for online network advertising companies? Are these principles still relevant, in light of changes in the marketplace? What other legal or self-regulatory standards are applicable to these practices? Are certain practices generally regarded as appropriate or inappropriate in this area?
• What changes are anticipated in the online behavioral advertising market over the next five years? Will information be collected through technological means other than cookies? Is behavioral advertising moving beyond the Internet into other technologies?

PMA will cover this material in detail at the Law Conference . Nov 15-16 in Chicago.Register now for early bird pricing

https://www.pmalink.org/shop/law2007_register.aspx