12 April 2008 - 13:05Ad Industry Bans Targeting People With Cancer

From BITS NYT:  Ad Industry Bans Targeting People With Cancer; Ads to Widows and Orphans Allowed

A group of advertising companies is proposing restrictions on monitoring users’ Web surfing on some sensitive topics. Cancer and sexual orientation are on the list. It said targeting ads based on “political affiliation” or “death” is sometimes acceptable.

The essence of the proposal is to identify sensitive subjects that advertising companies should not keep track of. Here is the list:
1) Certain medical/health conditions–
* HIV/ AIDS status
* Sexually-related conditions (e.g., sexually transmitted diseases, erectile
* dysfunction)
* Psychiatric conditions
* Cancer status
* Abortion-related

2) Certain personal life information–
* Sexual behavior/orientation/identity (i.e., Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender)
* Criminal victim status (e.g., rape victim status)

The following subjects are a matter left up to the individual advertiser.
Age, addictions (e.g., drugs, alcohol, gambling), nationality, criminal history, death, disability, ethnic affiliation, marital status, philosophical beliefs, political affiliation or opinions, pregnancy, race identification, religious affiliation (or lack thereof), trade union membership

The whole point of this is to try and preempt an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to impose their own guidelines.

Mr. Hughes of the Network Advertising Initiative wrote back to explain the “death” category:
” We were thinking about people who were making funeral arrangements or otherwise attending to issues related to the death of a loved one.”

The major problem as I see it is the amount of leeway given to people I consider to be spammers, and the fact that companies like Tribal Fusion are not members and so will not be bound by the proposed regulations.

“Hi: I’m the fox. Let me design the security for your new hen house.”