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New York Introduces Anti-Targeting Legislation

New York state assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky thinks it should be a crime for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent. And Brodsky has taken action, sponsoring a bill that would make using personally identifiable information for advertising purposes punishable by fine.



He's not alone, either: the General Law Committee of the state assembly of Connecticut has also introduced a bill that focuses on data collection rules for third-party advertising networks, which interpret such data in order to serve advertising across a network of publishers they do not own.

However, the New York state bill, which is still a work in progress, will be broader in scope. Its aim is to force Web sites to give consumers obvious ways to opt out of advertising based on their browsing history and Web actions. Obviously, ad industry execs don't like this idea. They argue that no harm comes from the targeting techniques deployed by marketers. Others point out that consumer watchdog groups are really the ones pressing the issue, not consumers themselves.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »

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