OPTING OUT of Yahoo & Google Target Advertising

Check it out. Both Yahoo and Google have recently allowed users to opt out of targeted advertising. Which means that if anyone does not want to be served ad that are "personally relevant" (Yahoo's words) to them, they can choose to not to and only get randomly served advertising.

For Yahoo, this will be enabled by the end of August. Users will be able "to opt-out of customized advertising on Yahoo.com. This new option expands Yahoo!'s existing opt-out program for customized advertising served by Yahoo! on third party networks." See the August 8, 2008 press release here.

For Google, it is not just on google.com and their other sites, but also across the content network and DoubleClick network. "Anyone may opt out of the DoubleClick cookie (for both the Google content network and DoubleClick ad serving) at any time. In addition, Google allows third party advertisers to serve ads on the Google content network. Using a tool created by the Network Advertising Initiative, you can opt out of several third party ad servers’ and networks’ cookies simultaneously." See details here.

Who's targeting who?

Both of these companies' announcements are apparently in response to the United States' Congress's probe into privacy concerns and behavorial targeting practices of advertising networks. Both of these companies and 31 others were sent letters from Congress. The letter sent to Embarq is available here. An article from BetaNews on the whole thing is here.

Hmm... just as targeted advertising is beginning to pick up around the world...