On the Viability of Contextual Advertising as a Privacy-Preserving Alternative to Behavioral Advertising on the Web

Abstract

Increasing privacy concerns regarding online behavioral advertising have sparked a renewed interest in online contextual advertising. However, while giving up on behavioral advertising may cede economic gains, adopting novel methods of contextual advertising may not cure consumer privacy. In fact, as such methods often extend far beyond the traditional matching of ads to keywords on a web page, they allow ads to become increasingly targeted to consumer information which may also violate consumer privacy and trigger privacy concerns. Firms and regulators should thus be careful not to inflict economic costs while failing to protect consumer privacy.

Keywords: Privacy, contextual advertising, behavioral advertising, contextual integrity