Ethics Newsline®

British newspaper publishers experiment with pop-up ads triggered by mouse movements; insurance companies flirt with new systems that monitor teen drivers; Facebook allows users to completely shut off controversial ad platform that broadcasts their purchasing habits.

SAN FRANCISCO
Intrusive technology made ethics news last week in several stories:

• British publishers are experimenting with a new online advertising system in which pop-up ads appear when readers roll over key words in the text. But the newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher reports that some U.S. papers, including the New York Times, have expressed ethics concerns about the ad platform. The manufacturer of the system denies that there is any danger of compromising news writing, saying that editors will not be asked to include words keyed to the pop-ups.
• New systems that allow parents to keep tabs on teenage drivers are ready to roll out, but ethics concerns are slowing the adoption of the technology. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of the systems, offered through insurance companies, report details of speed, location, and braking, and provide video of the driver and passengers. But the Journal notes that insurer State Farm isn’t buying in just yet, citing privacy concerns. A spokesman for Allstate told the Journal that while parents may want to know what their teens are doing in the car, they don’t necessarily want the insurance company to know or use the information to deny a claim.
• Following intense criticism, social-networking site Facebook last week said it will now allow customers to completely opt out of the controversial “Beacon” advertising system, which broadcasts details of members’ purchases to other Facebook customers on a user’s personal network as part of a campaign of “personal referral” advertising, PC Worldreports. The company infuriated many users by enrolling them in the data-sharing plan by default, requiring that they actively “opt out” if they did not want their information shared.

Sources: Editor & Publisher, Dec. 5 — Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5 — PC World, Dec. 5.