OTTAWA – The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), based at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, has asked the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to open an investigation into targeted web advertising.
Using certain technologies, including deep packet inspection, Canadian ISPs can identify tendencies of its users in order to better target the web ads sent to their computer screens as they search. The idea is to deliver better, more relevant ads to consumers and deliver better, more relevant customers to advertisers.
The practice, known as behavioral targeting, is used in many jurisdictions, such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The technology normally does not gather specific information linking individual users to their web surfing activity and gathers the information in the aggregate so as to not impact personal privacy.
“Behavioral targeting raises a number of serious privacy concerns and may violate federal privacy laws.” said CIPPIC director Philippa Lawson, in a press release. However, the CIPPIC release added its analysis “concludes that behavioral targeting by ISPs likely violates the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), alleging that ISPs engaging in the practice often fail to provide sufficient notice to users, do not obtain meaningful consent from users, and do not offer users effective ways to control such uses of their personal information.”
Behavioral targeting has generated concern in other corners. The U.S. Congress recently held hearings on the topic.
“Along with the call for an industry-wide investigation regarding behavioral targeting, CIPPIC filed company-specific privacy complaints against Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and EastLink Inc. for their use of deep packet inspection in the context of “traffic-shaping”, another controversial ISP practice that is currently the focus of another CIPPIC complaint against Bell Canada (as well as a CRTC proceeding initiated by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers against Bell Canada),” adds the press release.
