Berners-Lee warns of privacy risks as Google ramps up ad targeting

by Dan Leahul, Brand Republic 12-Mar-09, 08:55

LONDON - Google is to target advertisements to web users based on their browsing history in a move that has alarmed privacy watchdogs, including the creator of the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Speaking at a Westminster roundtable about online privacy yesterday, Berners-Lee said web users' data should not be collected by internet companies, which could potentially sell the highly sensitive information to the highest bidder, such as advertisers.

Berners-Lee said: "We use the internet without a thought that a third party would know what we have just clicked on.

"Yet the URLs which people use reveal a huge amount about their lives, loves, hates, and fears. This is extremely sensitive information.

"People use the web in a crisis, when wondering whether they have a sexual transmitted disease, or cancer, when wondering if they are homosexual and whether to talk about it.

"There will be a huge commercial pressure to release this data. The principle should be that it is not to be collected in the first place."

His words followed news that Google is set to introduce new behavioural targeting for its AdSense advertising programme.

Google will now track users' web data, or cookies, including what sites they visit and what videos they watch on YouTube, in a bid to serve more relevant advertising.

The company said it would not collect information from certain web pages, including those of a political, religious, health, pornographic or financial nature.

It has also included a tool to let users delete or add ads categories associated with the browser, allowing users to tweak the AdSense programme to serve very relevant ads.

Google has also included the choice to completely opt-out of the programme, however, the company has been criticised for not offering an opt-in option instead.

The preferences and opt-out clauses follow the behavioural targeting guidelines set by the IAB last week, which was supported by a number of internet firms, including Google and Microsoft.

The IAB rules state that internet companies must provide notice, choice and education to consumers about their targeting practices.

Google's new programme follows, Yahoo! and AOL, which use similar behavioural targeting for their advertising, although the two companies search market share is dwarfed by the number of web users who log on to Google as their main search engine.

Comments

Jack Marshall - 12/03/2009

I think this story is somewhat misleading. Berners-Lee did not say he was concerned about behavioural targeting in general, he said he was concerned about it at the ISP-level.

robin caller - 12/03/2009

Jack - are you saying that Brand Republic is misleading us? Were you there? They are quoting Mr Berners Lee. And, given that Google have access to data profiling via consumers search activity, installed browser, video watching, and email content already, what distinctive difference do you think Berners Lee needs to make between an ISP's deep packet inspection on an "opt in" basis, and Google's profiling capabilities on an "opt-out" basis?

Gelos Grapos - 12/03/2009

Get it right BR Berners-Lee invented the world wide web not the Internet. On this basis can we take the rest of the article as factual?

Ross Ryles - 13/03/2009

Someone who was there thinks that BR are quoting Berners-Lee out of context. https://nodpi.org/2009/03/12/sir-tim-berners-lee-quoted-completely-out-of-context-by-brandrepublic/ To give a fairer impression here is another quote from Sir Tim: "I don't have a problem with behavioral advertising, I think it's an improvement, but there are so many ways to do it without ISPs snooping".