Have you ever been surfing the web and come upon Internet advertising that provides a direct solution for something that you’ve been researching lately? Did you think that it might be related to your computer cookies, or did you chalk it up to serendipity?

The fact is, it almost certainly wasn’t a coincidence. Behavior-based Internet advertising is a relatively new and very powerful way for advertisers to get their message in front of potential buyers that they know to be qualified. The question is, how do they know that the surfer is qualified?

The advertisers know this because the Internet advertising network is tracking the surfers’ online activity. With tracking, advertisers know what sites you like. They know what searches you make. They have profiled you, and, unlike in real life, profiling on the web is AOK — so far.

Check Your Computer for Cookies

Before we get into the legal issues involved, perhaps a further definition of the technology is in order. Most (but not all) behavioral Internet advertising is based on computer “cookies.” These computer cookies are tiny files that are placed on your machine when you visit certain websites. In the simplest form, you go to a web page. An advertiser has a blank spot, or placeholder, for a banner ad. But instead of serving up just any banner ad, the advertiser parses through your computer for cookies to discover your likes and dislikes, and then you are fed Internet advertising based on your online behavior.

For some people, this is no big deal. They like Internet advertising to be targeted toward them, and they don’t mind computer cookies. For others, it’s a little Orwellian and creepy. This leads us to the great debate.

Opt-in or Opt-out?

One big question to be resolved is whether ultimately this type of Internet advertising will be “opt-in” (meaning that a user has to sign up in order to receive targeted ads) or “opt-out” (meaning that a user will receive targeted ads unless they specifically ask not to).

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to know which side the advertisers are on. If governmental regulators eventually require that all Internet advertising be “opt-in”, the industry will be severely restricted. My guess is that it would relegate behavior-based Internet advertising to a fringe player in the online marketing world.

The privacy advocates, naturally, are on the other side of the fence. The vast majority of people assume that their online activity is not being tracked, they say. Why should they have to take a specific action in order to remove computer cookies and to not be tracked and profiled?

A Do Not Track List?

Recently, a group of nine consumer advocate groups proposed the idea of a “Do Not Track” list for Internet advertising, which would work in a similar fashion as the “Do Not Call” list works today. Naturally, this is an “Opt-out” scenario, but because of the attention that the formation of such a list would bring, it may be a suitable compromise between advertiser and advocate.

How to Prevent Being Tracked

It is fairly easy to prevent being tracked by advertisers. You simply prevent your machine from accepting computer cookies. Go to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL and click on INTERNET OPTIONS then the PRIVACY tab. (Note that these instructions assume you are working with a Windows XP system. The procedure will be similar, however, for other operating systems.) Slide the bar all the way to the top to where it says “Block All Cookies.”

However, you should be aware that this change may limit your Internet experience. Some websites will not display properly (or at all) if you do not accept computer cookies. In my experience, at least one of the top five search engines will not work at all. Other engines have limited functionality when you block Internet advertising.

Even if you do manage to turn off your computer cookies, don’t rest easy just yet.

The Newest Technology

Recently, it was announced that a Silicon Valley startup named NebuAd has created a new technology that does not require computer cookies. Under the NebuAd model, the company teams up directly with service providers and installs equipment directly at their facilities that allows them to track the behavior of individuals on the web, even if their machine does not accept computer cookies. This, of course, requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to embrace the new technology; naturally, they are given a piece of the Internet advertising revenue that is generated. Whether or not any of the major players embrace this technology will probably depend largely on public outcry, or lack thereof. Of course, if this does become the newest behavioral targeting standard, we will return again to the question of “Opt-in” or “Opt-out.”

Conclusion

The future of this approach to Internet advertising is unclear, and will depend largely on public education and reaction. Will people see value in receiving targeted ads, even if it means that somewhere there is an “anonymous” profile of them sitting on a server? Will they feel outraged and push for a total ban? It’s hard to say.

Will this new approach be the death of the Internet as we know it? Probably not. But it should at least be interesting.

(C) Medium Blue 2007

Scott Buresh is the founder of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including MarketingProfs, ZDNet, SiteProNews, WebProNews, DarwinMag, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue has local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters, and was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Youtube Results For Internet Security Providers

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www.wegoodinfo.com/internet-filtering – Internet Filtering In 2001 60.7% of employees stated that they visit web sites for personal use with 51% of employees spending time checking email, online chat, shopping and checking their finances. Using working time to browse Internet sites for personal use takes away productivity and uses up company bandwidth when things are downloaded. The way in which this works is web site requests are sent through filtering software. Filtering software works in conjunction with a master database of approximately three or four million web sites. These websites all contain content that is deemed unsuitable for the workplace. These sites include adult sites, gambling and the downloading of mp3’s as well as stopping the ability to shop online. New sites are added to this database daily so that as the Internet grows your web filtering software stays up-to-date with the latest sites that need to be restricted from working hours. Site blocking/content filtering only focuses on HTTP based web traffic, leaving other applications such as instant messaging and email as a continuing security risk and a waste of employee time. When it comes to web filtering there is often a lot of controversy surrounding it as many people disprove of filtering moral and political view points. In the case of stopping employees getting on to certain sites it is done so that employees will get on with their work rather than wasting company time browsing sites that have …

Yahoo Answers For Internet Security Providers

Question Aternanatives to subscribing to McFee, other internet security providers, to get complete internet protection?
I want to get spamkiller, personal firewall, virus protection, privacy protection I.E. complete security suite.

The Best Answer There are quite a few free anti-spyware and antii virus programs available! I suggest that users should use at least 3 different anti spyware scanner products to regularly scan their systems. Most of these products are free for non-commercial use versions that have disabled some features, usually the active resident protection.

Spybot Search and Destroy is an excellent program for scanning for and removing spyware. The resident modules can be a bit buggy, but the extra included tools such as startup manger are great! http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Adaware is another good scanner and removal tool but it has no resident abilities at all in the free version. http://free.lavasoft.com

Ewido is fairly new as a free spyware scanner, but it comes from the people who brought us AVG, so I expect good things: http://free.grisoft.com

Microsoft has their free scanner avalable for download although many advise that this tool is a bit permissive of questionable programs and add ons! Defender does offer a couple of options the others do not have such as scheduled scan and a resident process for active protection. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

A new player is on the scene with SUPERAntiSpware. I was fairly impressed with the deep scans performed by this product, and it found some inactive files with spyware embedded,that the others had missed. I will add this to the list of tools in the arsenal and see how it really performs on active spyware. If you want to try it you can download it here: http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

Once you have your system cleaned up of all the spyware, then you should protect yourself against new infestations. Spyware Blaster does a very good job and does not use up any system resourses in doing so. Works with both IE and Firefox browsers: This Download can be found at http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Another good way to avoid spyware is to use the Firefox browser. While not immune from spyware infestation, you will certainly not have as many problems as when you run I.E. Easy Download at http://www.mozilla.com

Free Anti-Virus Programs
AVG has a good personal use Anti-Virus product available at: http://free.grisoft.com

Avast Antivirus, also for non-commercial use is available at: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Avira AntiVir Personal Edition is also available for download at http://www.free-av.com , I have not used this a lot and would welcome other comments on it.

The above products include active background scanning modules!

Bitdefender has an excellent scanner and removal tool but does not have

Twitter Results For Internet Security Providers

envescent (Alexander G Chamandy) – 50 #Internet providers are hosting 50% of infected machines globally. #malware #infosec http://fb.me/JT08ALn4

vistaheads (steve) – BBC says it can counter web-throttling by ISPs: The BBC has issued a veiled threat to internet service providers… http://bit.ly/dpOPMJ