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Charlie Beckett

October 22nd, 2008

Behavioural advertising: solution or slippery slope?

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

October 22nd, 2008

Behavioural advertising: solution or slippery slope?

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Media investor Peter ‘Big Brother’ Bazalgette hopes that online behavioural advertising can fund content in the future. At his Polis speech he was challenged by LSE Privacy expert Gus Hosein who warned that allowing your data to be stored by others is a slippery slope to state surveillance.

This is, indeed, the fear of Bazalgette too. He is worried that the UK Home Secretary’s plans to retain details of personal online communication will put the public off sharing information with commercial companies.

Both speakers agreed that privacy is still valued, even by the Facebook generation. They both agreed that you should have a right to anonymity and the ability to control who knows about you.

Both agreed that there is a policy vacuum as government fails to tackle the tough and complex issues of online transparency in search, for example.

In the end, the difference was that Hosein doesn’t trust commerce, Bazalgette lives by it.

Read Peter Bazalgette’s argument here.

Guardian report here

Telegraph report here

Prospect magazine blog here

About the author

Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Media | Research