UK advertisers will try to avoid strict regulations by setting their own rules on online behaviour, the Financial Times reported .
However, these principles, established by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) together with nine companies, including giants Google, AOL and Microsoft, have been criticised by consumer associations, which claim that they constitute a "minimum" that is desirable.
Consumers are concerned about the use of Behavioural bc data malaysia Targeting (BT) on the web, i.e. segmentation based on users' behaviour, which records data on browsing habits anonymously to investigate the interests of certain groups.
The IAB advocates for users' freedom to provide their personal information to companies online, and will create an information portal to educate Internet users about privacy.
The organisation also calls on companies to "provide clear and unambiguous information" and "offer mechanisms for users to reject tracking and segmentation techniques."
For Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights platform, which defends civil liberties on the Internet, these regulations are quite "lax" and are the minimum acceptable by the industry, since they leave it to users to constantly delete their history and preferences in the browser to protect their privacy.
"They haven't said anything new," said Gus Hosein of Privacy International (PI), who stressed that these directives delegate too much responsibility to consumers themselves.