Canadian Policy Brief > Behavioral Advertising Growing Privacy Concern

Behavioral Advertising Growing Privacy Concern

January 12, 2012

According to Statistics Canada’s latest figures, eight in 10 Canadians aged 16 and older are tracked while browsing online. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) reported that this browsing history is compiled in user profiles that are used to determine what online ads they will see, a practice called “behavioral advertising.”

The article noted that this kind of tracking is normally done by third-parties who follow users via cookies or web beacons that lay a trail of digital bread crumbs that are tracked and analyzed to find out the users’ interests based on where and what they have clicked.

The OPC reported that the information involved in this practice can identify individuals and constitutes personal information under Canada’s private sector privacy law. Therefore, individuals must be made aware of what’s happening when they browse the Internet. However, it’s not as easy to figure out as one might think.

Users often have to dig through a website’s privacy policy to determine whether it is tracking their activity or not. To clarify what is fair, the privacy commissioner released “Privacy and Online Behavioural Advertising,” which provides guidance about how websites should make users aware of their tracking practices and how they can use an “opt-out” approach for gaining users’ “meaningful consent” to track them.

Because children are not able to give meaningful consent, the commissioner noted that websites specifically aimed at kids should not allow tracking for behavioral advertising. The OPC noted on its website that in the months to come, it will be watching to see that its guidance is followed.

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