Internet snooping software could be investigated by OFT

It is possible that later this year could see the Office of Fair Trading carrying out a study on Internet advertisers that monitor consumers online activities and use the information in order to target them with selective adverts.

Businesses, individuals and a number of other organisations will be asked to give their views on the scope of the study, which will look at potentially misleading advertising, the pricing of both services and goods and how these will impact on consumers, said the OFT.

Advertising and pricing over the internet will be the main area of focus by the OFT with the consideration of how consumer law relates to this and it will also look at how consumers could risk being harmed by certain advertising practices, both offline and online.

Using peoples personal information for the purposes of pricing and advertising, especially when the online advertising a user receives is targeted by using information gathered from an individuals online broadband use, may also be looked into by the OFT.

The senior director of the OFT’s consumer market group, Heather Clayton said “The way that businesses advertise and price goods and services constantly evolves, and we need to keep up to date on how consumers view these adverts, and the types of advertising and prices which may mislead. Before starting our study, we want to understand from consumer groups, businesses and other organisations which areas they think we should focus on.”

Accusations of snooping into users’ personal activities online has caused the AIM-listed company, Phorm to receive heavy criticism from campaigners for online privacy for quite a while now and has led to the company facing a number of serious issues.

The most recent is the announcement by the OFT, which has led to the shares in this controversial company to drop significantly.

Source – Birmingham Post