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Éste es un artículo por Emily Steel @ the wall street journal

The threat of new regulations involving Internet privacy is prompting Web advertisers to give consumers more control over how their private information is collected and used online.

In coming weeks, a group of advertising, media and Internet trade groups plan to announce new guidelines for Web sites that they say could better protect consumers’ privacy online.

Among the measures is an icon that would appear either on Web pages or ads alerting consumers if their activity is being tracked. Clicking the icon would reveal information on the activities that a site collects about visitors, along with a list of companies that use this data, said an official at an ad trade group.

The trade groups behind the effort include the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The groups came together last February to develop privacy guidelines for the industry in response to growing scrutiny by the federal government over how Web advertisers use private information they collect. Congress is drafting legislation that would give consumers more control over how such information is used.

The possible legislation comes as the Federal Trade Commission is taking on a more active role in policing online privacy. Earlier this month, the FTC reached a settlement with Sears Holdings Corp.over allegations by the trade watchdog that the retailer failed to adequately inform consumers the extent to which it was monitoring their activities on the Web.

«Congress has industry’s attention at a level that it has never had before,» said Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. «The industry understands that there is a legislative threat out there right now.»

At issue is the ability of marketers to tailor ads to consumers based on personal information gleaned online.

Regulators are focused on a technique called «behavioral targeting,» in which a company tracks consumers’ online activities, such as the searches they make, the Web sites they visit and the products they buy. Marketers then use this to present ads based on consumers’ likely interests, such as showing ads for diapers to people who have visited Web sites on raising children.

Several popular Web sites are likely to redesign their pages around the new guidelines from the trade groups, according to an official at an advertising trade group.

The plan for the icon that consumers can click to check what data is collected and by whom would include an easy way for consumers to choose to not have their data collected, this person said. Marketers also could include a similar icon on the ads that they targeted to consumers based on their Web surfing, this person added.

Internet and ad companies also are finalizing practices related to data security and retention, including how long companies store information about their customers, the groups say. Also under discussion is creation of an industrywide Web site that would show consumers what information is collected and how to opt out.

The measures are an attempt to preserve what many ad executives say is the future of the industry, both online and in other media such as TV.

«The less information we are able to gather from consumers regarding their interests and their behaviors, the less likely it is that a marketer can provide more timely, relevant and targeted ads to consumers,» said Marc Fleishhacker, a managing director Ogilvy, an ad agency owned by WPP.

But whether the industry’s preventive measures stave off regulators remains to be seen.

«The jury is out on whether or not self-regulation is going to achieve the desired state here, which is for consumers to receive clear notice that information is being collected and meaningful explanation of what that information is and what it is being used for,» said Eileen Harrington, a deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.