Canadians who aren’t comfortable with web ads that are catered to their personal habits, will soon have the access to an opt-out tool that will fight against behavioural advertising.

IAB Canada, a non-profit association representing the digital marketing and advertising industry, is in talks with the Digital Advertising Alliance in the U.S to adopt its self-regulating program, which is already in place in the U.S.

 A blue icon with a lower case “i” means that the ad is appearing because of behavioural advertising practices based on the user’s past web history.

 The icon then links to  http://www.aboutads.info/, which includes an opt-out feature used by 160 ad agencies, ad networks and companies.

 Behavioural advertising is typically based on web browser “cookies,” computer files that contain information about usage history and and habits.

In December, Canada’s privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released guidelines for the advertising industry saying Canadians must have an easy way to say no to behavioural ads.

She called the U.S. opt-out system and the move to implementing it here “a very, very positive development.”

The latest versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox web browsers have do-not-track features, while Google has an optional download for its Chrome browser called “Keep My Opt-Outs.” 

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