Behavioral targeting network TACODA has announced the launch of its Consumer Choice Initiative, which will provide consumers notice of their exposure to the network at least once every six months.

The announcement comes from Dave Morgan, founder and chairman of Tacoda, in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission's hearings this week in Washington DC on "Marketing and Advertising in the Next Techade."

Last week, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Digital Democracy asked the Federal Trade Commission to review how companies use behavioral targeting to track consumers' online behavior.

Tacoda's Morgan says the company's initiative, which will provide notice through the use of tens of millions of in-page advertising units, goes further than current regulations or industry best practices requirements for consumer privacy.

As part of the commitment, Tacoda is shortening the expiration date of all its cookies going forward to only one year. Current industry best practices typically call for cookie expiration dates of three to 20 years. Tacoda is also developing patent-pending technology to recognize a consumers' opt-out status even if they have deleted their browser cookies. Current opt-out systems are not able to do this. Finally, Tacoda will avoid targeting advertisements using "sensitive" data, such as sexual preference, certain medical conditions, or identifying children although current industry practices permit targeting on this type of data.