Broadband users have been alerted to the dangers of newer styles of online advertising on websites, while website managers have been advised to stick to more traditional methods such as banner advertising.

The warning comes from UTalkMarketing.com, a community site for marketers, which spoke out after the social networking site Facebook apologised for using a system that tracked users' online shopping habits.

Facebook users complained about the intrusiveness of Beacon, which stored and passed on information about consumers' shopping patterns, leading to an 'opt-out' option.

Niall McKinney, UTalkMarketing.com's managing director, explained: ''If it is a straightforward banner ad or other types of traditional online display adverts ... then that is a very normal and straightforward thing to do - there is a big audience there and advertisers are quite right and are entitled to try and reach them. ''

He added that users would become wary if they thought their privacy was being invaded, and could start avoiding certain sites.

Broadband users should be aware of certain tracking forms of advertising, according to government initiative Get Safe Online, as this can be a way for spyware to install itself on computers in a trojan attack which sometimes involves viruses affecting performance.

However, anti-spyware software is now freely available and can prevent concerns which may be raised about the increasing number of advertising methods which can track behaviour.



Monday, 17th December 2007

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