Yahoo To Allow Browsers to Say No to Targeted Ads

Yahoo will let its Web visitors decline ads targeted to their browsing habits, becoming the latest Internet company to break from a common industry practice as Congress steps up scrutiny of customized advertising and consumer privacy.

Yahoo has been offering that opt-out choice only to ads the company runs on outside, partner sites.

Yahoo said Friday it now would extend that option to ads displayed on its own sites, to boost users’ trust _ and in doing so, perhaps draw visitors from its rivals.

The option will likely be available by the end of the month.

Visitors who decline would still see ads, but not ones delivered through “behavioral targeting” _ in which a site displays ads for golf carts, for instance, to visitors who frequent golf sites, even when they are reading about Paris Hilton. Instead, they’d see a generic ad.

The policy change does not affect Yahoo’s other targeted ads, such as those tied to search terms or location.

Nor does it stop the collection and retention of data that had been used to generate targeting profiles. Yahoo said it still needs the information for other reasons, including fraud detection and law-enforcement requests.

Yahoo said most consumers prefer targeted ads because they are most relevant to them.

Because people generally don’t bother or know how to change Web site settings, the choice should have little effect on the company’s ability to sell targeted ads, for which Yahoo can charge more because they reach specific users most likely to buy something.

Time Warner Inc.’s AOL began extending the option to its own sites late last year, incorporating technology it acquired with the purchase of the behavioral-targeting firm Tacoda. Microsoft Corp. also allows opt out on its own sites.

Google Inc.’s privacy policy offers opt out to third-party sites only, though the company says it conducts little, if any, behavioral targeting. Instead, Google has focused on contextual targeting, in which ads are influenced by one’s search terms or the text of a Web article.