NP: Maroon 5, Songs For Jane

The New York Times Bits blog doesn't think recent efforts at self-regulation by the Internet advertising go far enough, and offers some additional guidelines. Wired goes so far as to suggest the industry is shooting itself in the foot by practically ensuring regulation from the government.

One of the more contentious issues has always been -- and I'm probably going to oversimplify this to the point where people in the business will cringe -- whether or not Advertiser A should have visibility into more than just how you as a web user interact with Adversiter A's brand online, whether that's by visiting their site or clicking on one of their ads. If advertisers could see more of what you do on the web -- if they could just target your behavior -- they presume to be able to deliver what you want when you want it more effectively, but this raises hackles among privacy advocates, and just the hint of this causes major legal headaches for DoubleClick many years ago.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, British Telecom is stepping back from previous efforts in behavioral targeting. On the one hand, the IAB would almost never follow suit, as behavioral targeting (and re-targeting) continue to promise considerable growth for online advertising. On the other hand, BT is an Internet provide and not an advertiser, so the calculus is a bit different.