Online consumers should get more information about what information is being tracked and collected for the purposes of behavioral advertising, and they should have more control over what data is being collected, according to new privacy principles released Thursday by four advertising trade groups.
Several Republicans joined Democratic lawmakers Thursday in calling for new rules to protect Web users' privacy in behavioral advertising networks, although many members of a U.S. House of Representatives committee suggested the rules should come from the advertising industry, not Congress.
U.S. online advertising spending, which has been key in financing the Web 2.0 wave of Internet innovation, shrunk in the first quarter, the first year-on-year quarterly drop since 2002.
For marketers, so-called social ads, which display data and actions from social-network members, can be either gold mines or landmines.
After South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said efforts by Craigslist to eliminate racy ads aren't enough to halt his crimininal investigation, the head of the classified advertising Web site demanded an apology.
Online targeted advertising and the collection of consumer data are the fuel of Internet commerce, not the major privacy problems described by some advocates and U.S. lawmakers, according to a new paper.
Online-classifieds site Craigslist said on Wednesday that it will remove the "erotic services" category of advertisements from its U.S. Web site in a week, after the site was criticized by law enforcement agencies as providing a forum for prostitution and other illegal activities.
AOL's ad revenue fell 20 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, another troubling sign that its transformation into an advertising-supported business is off track.
With the so-called Craigslist killer making daily headlines, experts are debating whether the online classified advertising firm could face legal trouble for allegedly allowing the site to promote prostitution. The American online classified advertising firm is already facing a lawsuit in an Illinois federal court accusing it of facilitating prostitution.
Yahoo's profit and revenue fell sharply in the first quarter, ended March 31, 2009, as the beleaguered Internet company added a softening online ad market to its list of woes.
Online advertising spending in the U.S. grew considerably less in 2008 than in prior years, but the mere fact that it increased over 2007 is a positive sign, considering the economic crisis that started last year.
News Corp., which owns MySpace, the Wall Street Journal, and the Fox TV network, reported disappointing quarterly results on Thursday. One problem, chairman Rupert Murdoch said, is that online ads have a different supply-and-demand equation than a printed newspaper or magazine. On MySpace, there aren't a finite number of printed pages for which advertisers can be forced to compete.
Google called off its proposed search advertising deal with Yahoo just three hours before the US Department of Justice was to file an antitrust complaint on November 5 aimed at blocking it, according to the lawyer that the government hired to pursue the case.
U.S. online advertising, the motor that fuels most Internet companies large and small, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace, has seen its growth lose significant speed in the first half of this year.
Revenues from Australia's online advertising market will grow to over $481 million in 2008, according to Frost & Sullivan predictions.