By Dave Porter

(AXcess News) Reno - A report by eMarketer on online audience data in relation to web advertising shows that behavioral targeting is a growing concern among marketers, yet trying to get web audiences to understand it so they no longer look at as an invasion of privacy is another matter all together.

The US Government is very concerned over the amount of information online advertisers collect online and so are most Americans who use the web.  Yet for marketers it's a different situation ,says eMarketer senior analyst, David Hallerman.

"Audience discomfort around marketers collecting data has led to calls for regulation," says Hallerman, who emphasized that many companies are sitting it out for now waiting to see how privacy issues will play out.  "Some brands are staying on the sidelines of behavioral targeting because they fear consumer backlash," Hallerman noted.

Hallerman's latest report, "Audience Ad Targeting: Data and Privacy Issues" notes that online advertisers in the US will spend more than $1.1 billion on behaviorally targeted advertising in 2010, predicting it will rise to as much as $2.6 billion in 2014.

A survey from the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) basically confirms earlier reports that websites are collecting too much information.  eMarketer notes that a solid 70% of web audiences agree that there's too much information being collected - and just online but in mobile communications as well.

The FPF argues that if websites want the right to collect user information that enhances behavioral targeting for the benefit of both advertisers and consumer audiences, then they need to demonstrate a clear, objective course of action that will protect individuals rights to privacy.

In a November, 2009 post, the FPF noted: "there is an urgent need for companies using online technologies to demonstrate that they respect consumers’ right to privacy and their right to control the collection of information about them. Consumers need to feel confident that what is happening online is being done for them and not to them."

eMarketer's Hallerman argues that consumers are ignorant of the data being collected and that it is causing "product confusion."

"When the online audience is so ignorant of current data protections, it is little wonder that they also misunderstand exactly what online ad targeting is, how it may not really be a threat and what benefits they derive from Websites supported by advertising."

What Hallerman missed is the fact that not all websites use the data they collect as a 'benefit to consumers', though you have to take his report with a grain of salt considering eMarketer's customers are the very sites (and search engines) the FCC is trying to protect.

To the FTC, it's all about protection and under the FTC Act, the Federal Trade Commission intends on protecting consumers and the information websites can access, much of it related to fraudulent activities that will far outweigh online marketers desires for behavioral targeting.  So what could come of it all is a balance between disclosure, the right to opt-out and consumer rights to deny websites access or sharing of their personal information online.  For now, the battle appears to be one of more disclosure on the part of websites about their privacy policies, which Google and other search providers are already moving to place into effect - though privacy advocates still mistrust the level of information collected and who it will be shared with behind closed doors.  And for my money, I think they (consumers) should remain concerned - very concerned.