On November 1 and 2, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission will host a Town Hall entitled “Ehavioral Advertising: Tracking, Targeting, and Technology.” The event will bring together consumer advocates, industry representatives, technology experts, and academics to address consumer protection issues raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising - or “behavioral advertising.” The Town Hall is a follow-on to a dialogue on behavioral advertising that emerged at a November 2006 FTC forum, “Tech-Ade,” which examined the key technological and business developments that will shape consumers’ core experiences in the coming ten years. In addition, several consumer privacy advocates, as well as the State of New York, recently sent letters to the FTC asking it to examine the effects of behavioral advertising on consumer privacy.
The Town Hall will explore how the online advertising market, and specifically behavioral advertising, has changed in recent years, and what changes are anticipated over the next five years. Among other things, it will examine what types of consumer data are collected, how such data are used, what protections are provided for that data, and the costs and benefits of behavioral advertising to consumers. The Town Hall will also address what companies are disclosing to consumers and what consumers understand about the online collection of their information for use in advertising. In addition, the Town Hall will look at what regulatory and self-regulatory measures currently govern the practices related to online behavioral advertising, as well as anticipated changes in the behavioral advertising space in the future.
The Commission invites interested parties to submit requests to be panelists and to recommend other topics for discussion. The requests should be submitted electronically to behavioraladvertising_requests@ftc.gov by September 14, 2007. The Commission asks interested parties to include a statement detailing their expertise on the issues to be addressed at the Town Hall and complete contact information. The Commission will select panelists based on expertise and the need to represent a range of views about the issues. Panelists selected to participate will be notified by October 5, 2007.
A government-issued photo ID is required for entry to the event. Members of the public and press who wish to participate but who cannot attend can view a live Webcast on the FTC’s Web site. Pre-registration is not required.
- Agenda [PDF] (includes links to speaker presentations)
- Speaker biographies [PDF]
- Webcast
- Video contest submissions (posted in Windows Media format — .wmv):
- What is a cookie? (3.24MB)
- What is a cookie with Mari (3.95MB)
- Cookies 101 (3.96MB)
- Got cookies? (3.93MB)
- Cookies (3.83MB)
- Transcript
- Press release (August 6, 2007)
- Public comments
- Directions to the Conference Center
- Hotel information
- Nearby restaurants
FILING A COMMENT— Deadline: COB Friday, November 16, 2007
Any person also may submit written comments on the topics to be addressed at the Town Hall. Comments may be submitted via e-mail to behavioraladvertising_comments@ftc.gov or by mail to Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-135 (Annex N), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Comments must be received by COB Friday, November 16, 2007.