Australian Behavioural Ad Guidelines Planned

A cross-industry group comprising six of Australia's leading online, marketing and ad industry bodies has been formed to develop industry guidelines and standards on online behavioural advertising (OBA) in the country.

The group is already examining a range of issues which will impact upon the final guidelines including the industry's position, ensuring consumers are aware of what OBA means for them, and the application of the Privacy Act 1988 to online identity.

Group members include the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA), The Communications Council, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Internet Industry Association (IIA) and Media Federation of Australia (MFA).

'The combined efforts of these industry associations clearly show our commitment to developing a workable set of guidelines which will address the issues around OBA,' explains the group's spokesperson Scott McClellan, who is also CEO of the AANA. 'We plan to share these guidelines with the Senate Committee and the industry as a whole as soon as practicable.'

An exact date for completion has not been confirmed: however the group hopes to make the OBA Guidelines widely available in early 2011.

Last year in the US, four marketing and ad industry associations partnered to develop self-regulatory principles to address concerns about the use of online consumer data for behavioural advertising purposes.

The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) has since called for a 'Do Not Track' mechanism to be included in web browsers, in response to US privacy groups' concerns over ad targeting companies that track consumer browsing habits and use this data to target users with specific ads.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says that the introduction of such a measure would 'severely diminish' consumers' web experiences.

Web site: www.aana.com.au .|