As federal regulators continue to debate the issues of online privacy and ad targeting, several ad networks have taken major steps toward making it easier for consumers to control how they are tracked across the web. Yahoo, one of the biggest players in display advertising, is the latest company to do so with the launch of its Ad Interest Manager tool.
The new tool offers an explanation of what Yahoo calls "interest-based" advertising system -- essentially, behavioral targeting -- clarifying how Yahoo makes "educated guesses" about the ads consumers would like to see based on the websites they visit. Consumers can then choose what kind of ads they want to see from nearly 400 interest categories, or opt out of ad targeting all together.
Even though BT is a hot issue in Congress these days, Yahoo launched the new tool because of consumer demand, The New York Times reports. The company previously had a page that let users completely opt out of behavioral targeting across its ad network, and The Ad Interest Manager is designed to give consumers greater flexibility, rather than an all-or-nothing approach.