Privacy Gourmet

The IAB Launches Comprehensive Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising

The IAB's Enhanced Notice initiative seeks to provide consumers with greater transparency about how data is collected and used in online advertising and a means to control that experience to varying degrees -- including opting out of the process altogether, if a user so chooses. AOL Advertising is an active participant in this initiative. 

The Enhanced Notice Icon will be shown on select display ads throughout the AOL Advertising network and AOL owned and operated properties.  Consumers clicking on the icon will be provided more information about AOL Advertising’s data collection and use practices - including details about the ad serving process, the AOL Advertising Privacy Policy, access to other consumer education materials, and a means of opting out of behavioral targeting.  Finally, in Q4, AOL will release the AdVisibility tool - an online portal where consumers can, in real time, view and manage the behavioral segments AOL has associated with them.

For more information about the Enhanced Notice Initiative visit the IAB's site regarding the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.

Defining Day-Parting

A note from Christy Harris, privacy lead for Platform A, describing one of the options advertisers have known as “Day-Parting”.

Media has historically divided the day into sections to better target programming - a practice referred to as "day-parting." Advertisers on TV and Radio often air their commercials during the times of day when their “target” audience will be listening and watching. A restaurant chain might promote its coffee in the morning to reach commuters. An appliance company may seek to reach homemakers watching soap operas in the afternoon. The same can be done online, with an additional twist. Visitors to a Web site may be sitting at computers in different time zones around the world, so running a particular advertisement designed to reach early morning commuters checking the weather will be spot on for folks in one time zone, but inappropriate elsewhere. Since a user’s browser will display the time set on the clock on the user’s computer, an ad server may be able to target its ads to users based on this time. As a result, two users visiting a Web site at the same time may have different ads selected for them based on the time their browser displays to the Web site’s ad server.