Bart Lazar Quoted in the National Law Journal
"Advertiser Tracking of Web Surfing Brings Suits"

Bart Lazar was quoted March 2, 2009 in the National Law Journal article, "Advertiser Tracking of Web Surfing Brings Suits." The article discussed how behavioral advertising has triggered an intense legal controversy, leaving law firms scrambling to stay on top of a rapidly developing practice. The article noted that law firms are busy helping companies come up with a transparent way of letting consumers know that their online activities are being tracked and possibly shared. As he noted in the article, Bart, who assists business clients with privacy, copyright and trademark issues, felt that the industry stands a chance at proving that self-regulation works. He explained that self-policing should work, but there should be continuing efforts into educating consumers about behavioral-marketing practices and what happens on Web sites, "so the information is not buried deep in a privacy policy that no one ever reads." He further noted, "It is important to not have a negative 'knee-jerk' reaction to behavioral advertising, call it all a bad thing and then be fearful of it." According to Bart, there are some benefits to behavioral advertising, such as consumers' ability to receive discounts and other information about products and services that they are interested in purchasing. He also noted that some forms of behavioral advertising have little chance for misuse, such as first-party advertising, whereby a Web site collects information to deliver target ads to users, but doesn't share the data with third parties.