by Sarah Schoenfelder-

NebuAd, the behavioral targeting firm whose bad press fueled a privacy outcry last summer, has imploded. The company, once staffed by a team of 60, closed its doors Friday.  NebuAd's ISP-based tracking technology initially looked to offer promising insights into consumer surfing behaviors. But when it found itself at the swirling center of congressional hearings exploring the implications behavioral targeting had on consumer privacy last summer, NebuAd's buzz cooled considerably. As All Things D's Peter Kafka notes, “just about all of its former clients had run screaming from the company.”

What does NebuAd’s demise spell for behavioral targeting and the online ad biz? Was NebuAd a bad seed pushing the sensible limits of targeting with its invasive niche practices? Or was it just the one that got caught?

Hard to say. ISP-based, non-opt-in targeting has fallen from grace since the PR firestorm exploded around NebuAd and its UK counter-part Phorm. But the bottom line is collecting and using personal data still feels creepy to most online Americans—including those with the power to make laws. That includes Virginia congressman Rick Boucher, who has made it his personal crusade to regulate BT practices across the Net, including at the biggies: AOL, Yahoo, Google. If the online ad biz doesn’t clearly define parameters and explain the goals surrounding behavioral soon, further regulation of online advertising practices is only another NebuAd-type debacle away.

Kafka sums it up well. “Even if it is just a perception problem and the online ad business has only the best intentions when it comes to collecting and using personal Web data, it’s a perception problem that the industry has done a lousy job of fighting.” It's a good point, one that NebuAd missed when it went dark after things started to go south.

For all those left standing in BT here's a request-- stand up and explain in clear, simple sentences why it isn't creepy. Don't offer up some vague company jargon; give us the nuts and bolts of what is being collected, how it's being re-used, and why. Explain what-- if any-- effect that collection has on our privacy. Tell us how targeting spells relevance; how it can improve our online experience and reduce those annoying Diet Pill ads. And yes, tell us how marketers benefit from targeting ads-- we're not complete fools, after all.

Come to think of it, feel free to submit your treatise here. 500 words or less. I can't say that congressman Boucher will take note, but I'd love to share it with our readers. Source: AllThings D, more