Flash Of Criticism At FTC Privacy Roundtable

Behavioral targeting companies had better call their lawyers. Federal Trade Commission consumer protection head David Vladeck warned on Thursday (Jan 28) that the FTC is getting ready to go after online ad companies that try to get around consumers' decisions to avoid online ad targeting.

"We are currently examining practices that undermine the tools that consumers can use to opt out of behavioral advertising," Vladeck said at the FTC's roundtable on privacy. "We hope to announce law enforcement actions later this year," he added. Vladeck didn't elaborate, so it's not yet clear which companies are in the FTC's crosshairs. But one possibility is that he was referring to companies that use Flash cookies to circumvent users' wishes -- something that Vladeck and Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour have previously criticized. In fact, Flash was a big focus at the first FTC panel discussion this morning. Berkeley Law's Chris Hoofnagle mentioned that some companies had boasted that Flash cookies can be used for behavioral targeting because most consumers don't know enough to delete such cookies -- stored in a different place than traditional HTTP cookies.