AOL Will Let Consumers Opt Out of Targeted Ads from the Wall Street Journal reports that AOL will announce today a new tool that will enable AOL users to opt out of targeted or personalized ads. (NOTE: The AOL announcement is now live).

AOL has behavioral ad technology that stores consumer’s preferences and then tailors ads based on the sites’ users’ visits. AOL is expected to announce a system that will give these users the ability to opt out of those ads.

The Wall Street Journal says AOL most likely timed this announcement to pre-empt the Federal Trade Commission meeting tomorrow on “consumer-protection issues related to online advertising.”

Some more recent related articles on Internet privacy:

• Online Marketers Joining Internet Privacy Efforts from the New York Times
• Privacy Groups Propose Do-Not-Track List from Ad Age

See also related discussion on Techmeme.

Related Topics: AOL: Search Marketplace | Channel: SEM | Legal: Privacy | Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn