Media6Degrees relies on social data to target ads to consumers online. Don't call this "behavioral targeting," says Ex-Googler and Media6Degrees CEO Tom Phillips. "It's a loaded word, and that's not what we do. Behavioral refers to observing specific behavior of particular browsers generally not identified beyond browser IDs. Trying to track that behavior is a fool's errand."

As most of us expected, consumer, regulatory and legislative concern over privacy only heightened this year. In fact, just last week we saw how quickly the issue can move from an inside baseball discussion among the policy wonks and technophiles into a matter that truly touches everyone. From the appearance of the Boucher Privacy Bill draft to the complaint filed against Facebook with the FTC over its pressing users to reveal more and more of their data publicly, it's been a banner time for the great debates.

How will behavioral ad targeting work in the long term? First-party ad targeting will have full disclosure on Web sites. Third-party targeting, ad targeting across multiple Web sites, should require disclosure in the ad. In absence of that disclosure, an opt-in feature, instead of opt-out, should appear on sites. So the consumer would have to opt in to targeting. This scenario comes courtesy of Russell Glass, chief executive officer at Bizo,.

FinScore consultants believe they have created a successful method to integrate offline and online date to target consumers on specific sites. Scheduled for public release within the next few weeks, the platform dubbed FinWEB combines and matches customer offline CRM data with their online behavior to create what Sandro Saitta, a consultant at FinScore S.A., calls an "extended profile."

In case you missed it (and it was remarkably easy to miss), the FTC recently launched an online game at Admongo.gov that tries to teach the young'uns about advertising and its techniques, ubiquity and aims, through an online platform game. But how well does the game do what it purports to do? Don't worry. I played it so you don't have to. Or at least I tried to play it.

The video search engine introduced behavioral targeting services Tuesday supported by AdHoc, the company's contextual video advertising platform.

As new privacy initiatives proliferate standardized icons and messaging and push people towards profile pages, manicuring your online profile could become as typical as cleaning out your email inbox or some other behavior we never anticipated a decade ago.

The Internet has accelerated "generation numbness" -- some kids today aren't concerned about the type of information they post to the Internet, because they think the search engines of tomorrow should know how they feel today.

The privacy icons are here. The privacy icons are here. After a protracted period of collaboration, development and testing, the long-promised proposals for applying greater transparency to online data gathering by ad networks and Web sites finally emerged this week. We are that much closer to getting a standard set of icons and messaging for ads and sites that consumers can use to monitor and control the data that are being collected on them. Or at least that is the hope.

Meet Jeff Pullen. He lives in Santa Barbara, Calif. The former chief executive officer at U.S. Search, and chief operating officer at ValueClick, officially joined AudienceScience this week at president and chief operating officer.