Online Advertising
Advertising will undoubtedly plays a crucial role in almost every medium.The Internet is no different. Since the Internet is still a relatively young form of communication, it is important that everyone is properly informed about the advertising they see on the Web, and how it effects their surfing experience. This section of PrivacyChoices explains some of the benefits of Web advertising, how and why sites use advertising, and how cookies are used in this process to enhance your Web experience.

Consumer Benefits
The extraordinary growth of the Internet, and the promise of future growth, have been driven in large part by online advertising. Web sites, software developers and search engines, to name a few, are able to provide valuable services free-of-charge to Internet consumers due to funding from advertisers. Much like commercials on television and ads in newspapers, online ads have become a standard element of the Internet medium. Without them, sites would charge high subscription fees, or simply leave the Web.

One of the most powerful aspects of the Internet is its ability to personalize information for each particular user. Consumers drive this medium. Personalization allows businesses to provide you with the information, content, and products that you want. The same holds true for Internet advertising. Targeted online advertising allows you to receive ads that pertain to your particular interests. It assures that you don’t see the same ad over and over, and in the long run it allows marketers to provide you with special offers and discounts, because they know they are not wasting money on advertising on uninterested parties.

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Cookies
Sites deliver targeted advertising through ad serving technologies. Some sites have their own, but for the most part, sites use other companies who specialize in this form of technology to deliver their ads for them. Regardless of the form of ad serving, to deliver personalized content, these sites must all use a fairly simple technology called cookies.

What are cookies?
Every browser (the vehicle by which a computer accesses the Internet) is assigned an ID number. That ID number is held in a file called a cookie. That number is not attached to a name, just a number. Thousands of sites use cookies to enhance the user's Web viewing experience. Cookies cannot damage user files, nor can they read information from a user's hard drive. Cookies allow sites and advertisers to "remember" users across pages of a site and across multiple visits to a site. This feature enables e-commerce and Internet advertising in numerous ways, including:

• Allowing personalization features such as stock portfolio tracking and targeted news stories
• Allowing shopping cart capabilities and quick navigation across multiple zones of e-commerce sites
• Remembering user names and passwords for future visits
• Delivering advertisements targeted to a user's interests
• Controlling ad frequency, or the number of times a user sees a given ad

How are cookies used by networks and ad servers?
When you are first served an ad by by an ad server, it gives your browser a unique number and records that number in the cookie file of your computer. Then, when you visit a Web site on which that server is delivering ads, it can then read this number to help deliver relevant advertising to you. Cookies allow networks and ad servers to:

• Measure ad effectiveness, or the number of unique users who have viewed and clicked on ads.
• View utilization of an advertiser's site beyond the ad click. This helps our advertisers cater their content to best answer the needs of their customers.
• Measure reach, or the number or unique users who have visited a site in a given period of time.
• Control ad frequency to assure a user is not bombarded with the same ad over and over again.
• Align user interests with relevant advertisements. For example, users who click on sports ads tend to be interested in car ads also.
• Through partnerships with our advertisers, compile targetable lists of cookies representing users who have visited the advertiser's site or clicked on the advertiser's banner.

You can state here, if it applies, that you do not, and will not target users based on past visits or clicks on adult or gaming sites or banners, nor will we allow advertisers to target based on inferred or actual medical history or sexual preference.

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Our Customer’s view:
Understanding Your Rights With the rapid speed of change on the Internet it is important that you, as a consumer, understand what you can specifically do to protect your privacy when on the Web.

There are some basic guidelines that will help you protect your privacy online:
Read the Web site’s Privacy Policy A privacy policy is a legally binding document that describes and details the information gathering and dissemination practices of a site. Understand what types of information are being collected and how this information will be used before you do business with a Web site. It is your decision whether or not you choose to do business with sites that do not have written privacy policies.

Most sites put a link to their privacy policy on the home page where it is easy to find. In addition, if a site shares information with a third party, they should tell you and give you the ability to restrict such use.

Notice if the site has a 3rd Party Privacy Seal Seals give assurance that a site is abiding by its posted privacy policy. BBBOnline (a subsidiary of Better Business Bureaus) and TRUSTEe seals provide a mechanism to handle your complaints if you fell your privacy has been violated.

Do Not Disclose Sensitive Information Don’t disclose information you wouldn’t want to disclose over the phone or in person. You can always contact the Web site to find out more about its privacy and security practices before you make a purchase.

Do Not Tell Anyone Your Password Do not under any circumstances tell anyone your password. Use different passwords at different sites and change them often.

Use a Secure Browser Use a browser that complies with an industry security standard. - Additional information and consumer tips are available at our site’s Resource Center

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