Presidential Candidates Use of Behavorial Targeting Ads Raises Privacy Alarm

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Digital advertising networks and large Web companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft are using Web behavior -- which news articles people read, which blogs they visit or what search terms they enter -- to target voters who may be sympathetic to a certain cause. Using a method known as "sentiment detection," some companies even boast that they can tell whether the blog you go to is for or against the Iraq war...

The advertising techniques, known as "behavioral targeting" and "retargeting," have raised alarms from some privacy advocates, who say no one should unwittingly have their political leanings analyzed as they use the Web, or be tracked for the delivery of political ads. Congress has begun looking into the use of such techniques for commercial advertisers.

"The Web has been hailed for creating new opportunities for political expression, but there is this dark underside to it," said Jeffrey Chester with the Center for Digital Democracy. "Yes, you can reach everyone -- but you can track, target and profile them as well, and none of this is disclosed." ...

full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...03178.html