In the light of recent news events here in the UK, not just about Phorm (a way of behavioural advertising) but more importantly the recent news that Google is starting to implement this I thought I should explain what it is and my decisions regarding it.

Follow up:

Behavioural advertising works a little differently to current methods. As we all know Google's adverts (similar to those appearing on this website) tend to be reasonably in keeping with the subject matter of the site on which they are hosted. Naturally this is a huge bonus for web developers, as it is likely that a tech website will attract an audience that is interested in tech, and therefore relevant tech related adverts theoretically are the most appropriate.

This sounds all good, but behaioural advertising works differently. The adverts displayed are less influenced by the website itself and are more influenced by an individual's browsing history. Now you may be asking how this is possible, but it works using your cookies and transmitting your cookie history to an advertiser who then sends relevant adverts to your impression of the website you are viewing.

Before we go any further, I have my concerns about this as personally I believe it is a violation of personal privacy, but at the same time I understand why this move towards behavioural advertising is being made. At this point in time I have disabled behavioural advertising in favour of the traditional keywords method on this website, so you have no need to be concerned here.

I learnt a long time ago, never say never. And by that I mean that while I have made the decision to opt the site out of the behavioural scheme at this time, I may revisit my decision in the future depending on a number of factors. Should my stance on this change then I will post an update accordingly.

In the meantime, for anyone who has concerns over behavioural advertising on other websites, Google have provided plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox, and step by step instructions for Safari and Chrome to opt out of Google's cookie system. You can find this by clicking here

Happy browsing!!