Behavioral Advertising Ethics

Behavioral advertising is a method for targeting advertisements to individuals based on behavior profiles, which are created by tracking user behavior over a period of time. Individually targeted advertising can significantly improve the effectiveness of advertising. However, behavioral advertising may have serious implications for civil liberties such as privacy. In this chapter, we describe behavioral advertising ethics within the context of technological development, political and legal concerns, and traditional advertising practices. First, we discuss the developmental background of behavioral advertising technologies, focusing on web-based technologies and deep packet inspection. Then, we consider the ethical implications with a primary focus on privacy of behavioral advertising technologies. Next, we overview traditional market research approaches taken to advertising ethics. Following that, we discuss the legal ethics of behavioral advertising. Finally, we summarize these cross-disciplinary concerns and provide some discussion on points of interest for future research.