Privacy Protection-- Microsoft Style

Last week, Microsoft proposed a 5-tier standard for protecting customer privacy when customers are targeted by the online advertisement. According to the proposed standard, customer consent should be sought in five key circumstances:

• when site visitors' data is collected for online advertising,
• when ads are delivered on unrelated sites,
• when sites engage in behavioral advertising,
• when personally identifiable information is used, and
• when sensitive personal data is used.

Although there is an understanding among players in the online ads industry that there is a need for a better protection of customer privacy when they are targeted with online advertisement, there is no common understanding as to what privacy protection should be. Microsoft's move is considered as one of the boldest among the industry players so far.

According to NYTimes, Microsoft's comments on Friday are "in response to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's request for comments on its proposed privacy principles that would be self-administered by the online advertising industry."