MEPs call for curbs on behaviour-tracking ads

European Parliament committee describes behaviour-tracking ads as an attack on privacy

Consumers should be warned about internet advertisements that track their behaviour, according to a European Parliament committee.

The committee's ideas were transmitted in a report that argued that "misleading and aggressive" advertising practices, including using cookies to track consumer behaviour and posing as consumers on social networks, should be more heavily regulated.

The report, written by Internal Market Committee member Philippe Juvin, described the use of these practices as "an attack on the protection of privacy".

It calls for the insertion of the phrase "behavioural advertisement" into relevant ads, as well as a box explaining the term, and calls on the European Commission and Member States to ensure that consumers receive clear, accessible and comprehensive information about how their data is collected and used.

Information should be kept and used "only by explicit agreement by the consumer", the report suggests.

Juvin's report also recommends that "hidden" internet advertising - where commercial entities pose as customers online to recommend or disparage goods or services - should be monitored properly by forum moderators, and Member States should run campaigns to warn users of these types of advertising.

Finally, the report suggests the Commission should develop an EU website labelling system that certifies a site's standard of data protection, and that sites hosted in the EU should be swept regularly to eliminate behavioural ads.

The report must now be adopted by the European Parliament in December before it can seek to persuade the Commission that the law should be changed.