Chapter 3, Problem 91E

To determine

To explain: A report on the opinion on Online Behavioral Advertising.

Answer to Problem 91E

Solution: The company should take informed consent before collecting data from the respondents. The company should also confirm that the data is used securely in the study and will be discarded after the completion of the study.

Explanation of Solution

In Online Behavioral Advertising, data about the online activity of individuals is recorded and different companies use the data to determine which advertisements should be targeted to a particular customer.

The four governing principles of data collection can be classified as transparency and control; security and data retention; privacy; and sensitive data.

Before collecting the data, the company should take informed consent. The procedure of data collection and the type of data to be collected should be stated clearly. It helps the company to keep transparency in the data collection process and also helps the company handle sensitive data. Consent should be taken from the respondents for ethical reasons because collection of data regarding the online behavior of the respondents without informing them is unethical.

If data about any personal details is collected from the respondents for the sake of the study, then the company should provide proper security to keep the data protected. The company should confirm to the respondents that the data from the study will be used by the company only and it will be discarded after the end of the study.