There are many forms of Internet advertising that you encounter. One that has raised privacy concerns in the past is the so called behavioral targeting that is being used to track and analyze user behavior to display relevant ads to them. Many users feel that this is a invasion of their privacy and want to opt-out of those types of Internet advertising.
One way to do that would be to block cookies of those Internet advertising networks. It also works to clear cookies after every session but there is a better way. Many Internet advertising networks are providing ways to opt-out of behavioral targeting by setting so called opt-out cookies on the user’s computer system.
If an opt-out cookie is present they will not track and analyze the user by placing additional cookies on his computer system. The major problem here is that there are hundreds of online advertising companies that use behavioral targeting in some of their advertising campaigns.
A user following that manual approach would have to locate the website of the Internet advertising network and there the page where the opt-out cookie could be set. This would take days and the chance would be high that a lot of networks would be missed.
Privacy Choice was mentioned in yesterday’s post about Google’s new behavioral ads. The website provides the means to opt-out of behavioral targeting of dozens of ad networks including major ones like Google AdSense, DoubleClick, Yahoo! and AOL.
A click on the opt-out button on the main page of Privacy Choice will set all opt-out cookies that are currently provided by the service. This may take up to a minute as several connections to the various internet advertising agencies are established to set the cookie.
The only thing that you need to be aware of is that the opt-out cookie is a normal web browser cookie that will get deleted if you clear all of your cookies. You would need to set the opt-out cookie again after clearing the cookies of the web browser.
Related posts:
Protect your privacy from Google AdSense’s new behavioral adsWhy you should restrict Cookie Access
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Internet Cookies Manager
Internet Explorer: Expired Cookie Remover
Add And Edit Cookies Firefox Extension
Manage Flash Cookies with Better Privacy
CS Lite Firefox Cookie Manager
8 Responses to “Internet Advertising: Opt-Out Of Behavioral Targeting”
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[...] Internet Advertising: Opt-Out Of Behavioral Targeting. [...]
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[...] Privacychoice is free, works in most browsers. If you prefer a Firefox extension to give you total control over your cookies, check out previously mentioned CookieCuller—and don’t forget about those hidden and hard-to-reach Flash cookies. Privacychoice [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Web site Privacychoice rolls the opt-out routines for a couple dozen advertising networks into a single javascript button—so you can stop them tracking you without having to mess with cookie settings. Most advertising networks provide a mechanism to opt out of their user tracking systems, which works by them placing a cookie on your computer that tells them not to track you. Privacychoice automates the process of submitting each of the forms, saving you a lot of time if privacy is your goal—though you could simply setup CCleaner to wipe cookies on a schedule to prevent anybody from tracking your behaviour online. Privacychoice is free, works in most browsers. Privacychoice [via gHacks] [...]
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[...] Internet Advertising: Opt-Out Of Behavioral Targeting (ghacks.net) [...]
What a bummer that means that i have to reload/install again and again. Not very handy.
I don’t trust ANY cookies from these marketing scammers. Not even the “opt out” ones. For all I know, it’s just a backdoor way to get people to allow their cookies. This is why I use Firefox. I just set the “cookies” “exceptions” options to deny cookies from any marketing sites I see. Much easier and safer.
FYI, Google has an add-in for Firefox 1.5+ and Internet Explorer that will “set and forget” your choice to opt out of its advertising.
I found it at http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin/
It’s a pain in the neck to have to install another add on to tell Google not to do something, but a good solution. I’ve also seen add ons for the truly paranoid that send searches for random topics through to Google to disrupt your search patterns.
I’s be happy to learn, Dan, in which way privacy concerns are relevant of paranoia, should the other way round be true ;)