The Advertising industry recently published self-regulation guidelines for "behavioral advertising," i.e. advertising that is targeted to the user based upon data regarding that user’s activities across various Web sites.  The Federal Trade Commission has been urging the industry to develop such standards for some time.  These practices have also attracted considerable attention on Capitol Hill.  To summarize the new guidelines, Davis Wright Tremaine has published an Advisory, summarizing the new guidelines.  You can find the advisory here

Any company engaging in any behavioral advertising on their websites, including broadcasters and other digital media companies, should pay attention to these guidelines.  As noted in the memo, Congress continues to consider other regulatory steps to govern such advertising.  The more effective industry self-regulation is, the less the need for government intervention.