by Chris Hansen
VP of Performance Marketing, 360i

This week, the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) released its 2008 NAI Principles. These principles are designed to provide member advertising networks, specifically those that offer behavioral targeting, a code of conduct for data collection and a set of rules regarding user privacy. The main goal of these guidelines is to create a unified set of best practices for the industry to follow as a means of self regulation and to stave off potential governmental legislation in this area.

So what impact do these principles have on the behavioral programs you may be running? Frankly, for most marketers, there will be no impact. Most large advertising networks, specifically those networks 360i works with, are already part of the NAI and have been working under similar guidelines. The NAI Principles are merely a formal declaration of the rules and best practices that the NAI and its member networks have followed for some time. If you are currently running a program using some form of behavioral targeting, including remarketing or re-targeting, and are working with a network that is part of the NAI, then you are in compliance with their guidelines and should feel comfortable that you are employing industry best practices.  

Specifically, these networks will not and do not: 

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A big focus of new web browsers coming out is increased privacy settings for consumers. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, still in beta but widely available, offers an InPrivate Browsing option where the browser doesn’t store any cookies, temporary files, or user information. Google offers a similar Incognito setting in its new Chrome browser. There are other browsers such as Ixquick that allow for private searching, and while Firefox 3 doesn’t have a standard privacy mode, there are plug-ins that achieve the same result.

With all of this, should advertisers and publishers be concerned? Generally, no.

First, the privacy settings must be enabled rather than disabled. The standard option stores cookies, and that should be the setting for most internet usage.

Secondly, these privacy modes should appeal to consumers who already delete cookies. These users have been able to delete cookies for years through standard Internet Explorer and Firefox settings; the difference is now they’ll get to do it proactively. If a user deleted cookies through the browser they would have deleted everything. Now, some users may actually wind up only turning on the privacy settings at certain times and then will return to normal browsing. That could wind up leading to fewer cookies getting deleted or blocked.

Lastly, while Microsoft and Google both use examples of someone turning on privacy settings when shopping for gifts for their spouse, realistically these settings are nicknamed “porn mode” for good reason. At this point, few brand-name marketers and publishers should worry about the impact on ad targeting while consumers are engaging in such activities.

We’ll continually monitor this issue and will post updates as more information comes out.