CDT’s Guide to Behavioral Advertising

 

 

You may not know that it’s happening, but every day on many of the Internet’s most popular Web sites, advertisers are collecting data about what you do – what you search for, the purchases you make, and the information you post. They collect this data to create a profile of your interests and use the profile later to serve you ads they think you might click on. This technique is known as "behavioral advertising" or "behavioral targeting," and all of the Web’s biggest companies are doing it.

Because it involves the collection, use, and storage of data about you, behavioral advertising can have an impact on your privacy. What advertisers do with information about you, who they share it with, how they store it, and what choices you have are all important considerations in assessing online behavioral advertising practices. Read on to learn more about how behavioral advertising works and what you can do to protect your own privacy as behavioral advertising becomes more prevalent.