This is to say that they're using information about users and their past behaviors (in this case, the searches they've conducted) to optimize their ad placement. This includes the text-ads that appear within or next to search results, but it can also mean banner ads, if the search engine also runs or is partnered with a portal or network of websites.  

Privacy concerns 

These moves have been somewhat under the radar, and major privacy concerns haven't been raised -- up until very recently. 

Some industry experts have started to expound on the potential challenges surrounding the incorporation of behavioral targeting into search. A large part of this concern stems from a recognition of the increasing consumer anxiety over how and why data is collected about their online activities.  

Just as importantly, though, those of us who follow privacy trends recognize that consumers are increasingly more willing to use technology that inhibits the ability of marketers to reach them.

What's a search engine to do? 

At ad:tech New York, search guru John Battelle had a suggestion for search marketers. "To get to the point where people are giving up this kind of information," he said, "[W]e need to be able to see this information" (MediaPost, November 8, 2005). What I think Battelle is saying is that for consumers to provide the information necessary for targeted advertisements, they may need to be shown what information is collected, how it's stored and why it's necessary.

I think this is right, and moreover, I think there's another reason for providing that additional information. But first, some background.

Privacy professionals often talk about a "right of access" to one's information. The right of access is spelled out in (among other places) the Code of Fair Information Practices.

The Right of Access concept was conceived to empower an individual seeking to find out what information an organization has on them, and provide some opportunity to edit and/or delete that information.  

Worth the expense

Providing individual users with some visibility to the data that has been collected about them would doubtlessly require some expenditure of resources. Let's be fair: it probably wouldn't be cheap. And while the transparency might make some consumers more willing to provide their information to marketers, this remains something of an unproven assertion.  

But even so, search engines may still want to think about providing that transparency. 

Let's think about the environment in which online marketing exists. There's a whole cottage industry of what I sometimes refer to as "anti-marketing technology products" out there. I apologize -- the term sounds so negative. It's not meant to be derogatory -- just broadly descriptive. These technology products can serve as valuable tools to protect consumers from marketing messages (and other stuff) that they don't want to receive.

At any rate, anti-marketing technology products, broadly defined, would include pop-up blockers, spam-filters and anti-virus and anti-spyware software. It might also include the TiVo feature that allows consumers to skip through television advertisements.

What most of these products have in common is the ability to provide consumers with a level of control and transparency over the operation of certain marketing channels. Many consumers place a good deal of trust in these technologies to provide that control, and in some instances, make decisions for them. 

In fact, I'll bet that everyone reading this column is currently using one or more of these technology products right now. In many instances, they are extremely helpful and provide an invaluable consumer service. So what's the problem? 

Well, as anti-marketing technologies become increasingly sophisticated, it's easy to envision a consumer tool that provides a window into the data being collected from a consumer's computer. Crazy right? I'm not so sure. 

We all know that consumers are demanding more control over their online experience. And if this trend continues, consumers will insist upon a greater ability to determine what marketing technologies and processes are being used on their computers. This means they will want to see, specifically, what data is being collected and by whom -- and what processes are running on their computer and why. 

And anti-marketing technology products will be there to help them make sense of it all. But keep in mind that the makers of these products may have a very different interpretation of what your company is doing than you do. In certain cases, one man's paternalistic collection of data for security purposes is another's illicit data mining scheme -- one person's behavioral targeting process is another's spyware. 

Who do you want talking to consumers? 

Here's the bottom line: consumers are learning -- and will continue to learn more -- about what information is being collected about them. When they discover it from a piece of software they've acquired to "protect their privacy," they're very reasonably going to be concerned. When they hear about it from the company that's collecting the data, there's a chance that they might accept the proposition. 

Privacy is increasingly becoming part of your brand -- part of the story that your company tells. You can choose to tell that story yourself, or you can let someone else tell their version. Which one would you prefer?

Alan Chapell, CIPP, is president of Chapell & Associates, a consulting firm that helps companies understand privacy and incorporate consumer perception into product development. He has been in the interactive space for more than seven years with firms such as Jupiter Research, DoubleClick and Cheetahmail. Mr. Chapell is the New York chapter co-chair of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, publishes a daily blog on issues of consumer privacy and taught a class on privacy and marketing at NYU this past summer.