Consumers misled by online behavioral advertising companies

The European Consumers' Organization, BEUC, has hit out at the self-regulatory Framework for Online Behavioral Advertising calling it weak, misleading and potentially harmful to consumers' rights.

The contingency arise

"Should the contingency arise, the information displayed misleadingly highlights the benefits of behavioral advertising, using arguments just as that the advertisement is tailored to consumer's preferences, that the information collected is not personal and that this kind of commercial activity supports the access to a "free" Internet. What consumers are not told are the associated risks to their privacy that targeting and profiling entail, what other companies have access to the collected information, how it is processed and shared, when all is said and done on," continued Monique Goyens, BEUC director general.

According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 64 percent of European consumers said they were concerned about whether organizations that held their personal data handled this data appropriately and 82 percent of respondents who were Internet users thought that data transmission over the Internet was not sufficiently secure. The study as well found that only 27 percent of E.U. citizens were aware of all their rights in relation to data privacy.