Behavioural targeting of ads is the in-thing on the internet right now. It's when an ad company serves advertisement based on a profile they have created of you. You might have noticed something similar on Facebook, which serves future-ads based on your feedback on the current ads: it's a system that learns what to serve based on your personal interest, which is in turn based on inferences drawn from either your declared personal information ('I like this band') or your actions online ('I bought this CD').

It is obviously a grey moral area, as it involves tracking you over the internet, as well as tracking your purchase and/or behaviour as a potential or active consumer. Most of this happens unknown to us.
The practice raises privacy concerns -- how many of us know that we are under such scrutiny and surveillance? Is our privacy too much to expect while surfing the internet from our own homes?

These concerns have caught the attention of the U.S. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission; steps have been taken to investigate these doings. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, in a congressional hearing expressed his concerns over behavioural targeting stating that "privacy is a treasured right, but it is also a right that seems to come under regular attack." He also added concern that people "assume they are in the privacy of their own home and that this privacy will be respected. Unfortunately, this is not always the case."

These hearings seemed to have made some impact on the ad policies of at least two major online players. Google yesterday, through a blog post titled "New enhancements on the Google content network" slipped in an opt-out option for cookies that serve both AdSense and DoubleClick ads. A cookie is what does the behavioural tracking mentioned earlier. Now that Google has acquired ad-network DoubleClick, the company will place an additional DoubleClick cookie on our browsers. This will allow advertisers to leverage Google's existing Adsense network to push more display ads. But at least now, we can opt-out of the ad-Blitzkrieg.

Yahoo, took a similar stance. This other giant in our online room will also allow you to opt-out of 'customized' ads on Yahoo.com. Yahoo already allows you to opt-out of such served ads served on third party networks.

Customized, here, is just a euphemism for behaviourial targeting.

What these announcements amount to is a skirting of the issue. How many of us will take the time to opt-out of a service? How many are even aware that there is an issue here? Do we need to click on a button, or fill a form to actively defend what should be an obvious right to privacy?

During the congressional hearing, Facebook pointed out [PDF] that "receiving information that is likely to be relevant... leads to a better online experience". The issue here is the word likely, and the steps taken to refine that likelihood. It would be an even better online experience if we had the option to opt-in to these services, rather than opt-out.

You can opt-out of Yahoo's cookies here, and Google's here.