IBM to pull Web ads over privacy concerns
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34470,00.html
Kim Girard
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Companies that want advertising dollars from Big Blue will need to post a
privacy policy on their Web sites.
In a letter sent to online advertising customers today, IBM
http://www.ibm.com/ ], the second largest advertiser on the Web behind
Microsoft, is leading a charge for more privacy on the Internet, vowing to
pull its advertising from sites in the United States or Canada that do not
cite clear privacy policies.
The company said more stringent policies are necessary to overcome
consumers' fear of doing business online and to fuel the growth of
e-commerce.
"Our objective is not to cancel advertising but to get people to comply,"
said IBM spokesman John Bukovinsky. "We felt this was an opportunity for
us to use the economic or financial leverage of advertising to encourage
sites without a privacy policy to adopt and clearly post policies for
people to see."
IBM is giving advertising clients until June 1 to post a policy, he said.
A clear privacy policy lets Web surfers know what information will be
collected when they visit a site and how it will be used or sold to
marketers. Many Web sites collect personal information through online
registrations, mailing lists, surveys, user profiles, and order
fulfillment requirements.
The company estimates that just 30 percent of the 800 sites where it
advertises worldwide now tell visitors how personal information is
collected about them on the site and how it is used. Of the 800 sites
where IBM advertises, about 350 sites are located in the United States and
Canada. About 10 percent of IBM's overall $600 million advertising budget
for 1999 will go toward online advertising.
In the letters sent out today, IBM does not specify privacy guidelines for
companies to post, but does recommend that companies visit the Online
Privacy Alliance for recommendations [ http://www.privacyalliance.org/ ],
which includes letting surfers know what your company sells to marketers
and whether a company is using cookies to track where a surfer visits.
"It's critical that private industry take whatever initiatives it can to
ensure fundamental privacy practices are followed," Bukovinsky said.
A spokeswoman for the Online Privacy Alliance, whose 86 members include
industry groups and Fortune 500 companies, said while many companies and
organizations have moved to educate users about privacy, IBM--to her
knowledge--is the first to bank advertising dollars on it.
"We think that anything companies can do to encourage other companies to
post privacy policies that respect consumer privacy is a very good thing,"
she said.
-o-
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Received on Sat Apr 3 10:56:36 1999