The advertising industry has accepted a new standard icon called the Power-I or the little “i” – which you will spot on most online ads soon, and is a new step towards better online privacy standards.
Spot the white “i” on the blue background in the sample ad.
The NYT reports that most major companies running online ads will add the icon to their ads in this year with small notes like “Why did I get this ad?” and when it is clicked, they get a page explaining how the advertiser uses their web surfing history and demographic profile to display targeted and behavioral ads.
Most sites carry a privacy policy, which is required as per terms of service of most advertising companies (even Google Adsense requires privacy policy pages from publishers), which clearly highlights how advertisers track visitor information for ad targeting.
But usually the privacy policy is low down in the site footer and hardly clicked and read. This standard Power I icon will make such privacy policy more visible and will actually be clicked are read by site visitors – making them aware of their online privacy rights and usage.
What do you think about this new icon? Will it succeed?