The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has announced that new rules for online behavioural advertising (OBA) are set to come into force today.
The new OBA rules will mean that the public need to be provided with notice of, and control over, targeted ads.
OBA uses web viewing behaviour to deliver online advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to the user of that computer.
Chief executive of the ASA, Guy Parker, said: “The new rules will provide greater awareness of and control over OBA, demystifying how advertisers deliver more relevant ads to us and allowing those of us who object to say “stop”. We’ll be there to make sure that the ad networks stick to the rules.”
The new rules require ad networks delivering behaviourally targeted ads to make clear they are doing so. Most are likely to do that through an icon in the corner of online ads.