Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, introduced new guidelines to put limits on online behavioural advertising whereby advertisers, browser developers, and websites develop profiling, targeting and tracking data based on a user’s preferences and internet searching history.  The Privacy Commissioner acknowledged that while advertising can be used to subsidize free content on the Internet, nevertheless, online advertising practices must adhere to an individual’s rights to choose and to privacy. Online behavioural advertising is considered an acceptable practice under the federally-regulated, private sector-oriented Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) with the proviso that it is not a service condition. One can read the Privacy Commissioner’s address to the Marketing and the Law Conference on December 6, 2011 by clicking here.

Organizations should be avoiding the use of technology that hinders an individual’s ability to decline being targeted and tracked, for example, device fingerprinting, super cookies, and zombie cookies. Steps should be taken to avoid tracking and targeting children on websites and the internet as they are unlikely able to provide “meaningful consent”. An adult opting out of consent to collect information is deemed to be a reasonable course of action provided that it is easy for that individual to opt-out in an immediate manner, following a clear and understandable explanation of the data collection at or before the time of collection. Any information that is collected and used with consent should be non-sensitive in nature and destroyed in a timely fashion, or alternatively, de-identified from a specific person.

This has implications for Facebook and Google which both use web users’ information to tailor their advertisements to users’ interests and preferences. One can read about Google’s five privacy principles and its privacy policy at the Google Privacy Center as well as accessing privacy tools including Google Dashboard, ads preference manager, data liberation front, keep my opt-outs, web history controls, and search personalization opt-out. Check out Facebook’s Help Center and its privacy page as well as some interactive tools including the ability to preview one’s profile, one’s public search profile, view targeted advertisements without sharing information, download information, and view applications used with varying degrees of permission.

Please see also “Protecting Customer Privacy” on the Business & Personal Finance blog.