Intel Demands Privacy Standards on Ad Sites

In another move to discourage government regulation, Intel Corp. said it will require Internet sites that carry its advertising to warn consumers what personal details are being collected about them online, says a published report.

Intel, which spent $1.3 billion on advertising last year, is among the largest buyers of ads on the Internet.

Intel’s announcement follows similar actions this year by IBM, Microsoft Corp. and The Walt Disney Co.

“We’re now joining the ranks,” Ann Lewnes, Intel’s director of worldwide advertising, told the Associated Press.

Intel said it will require by Jan. 1 that all the roughly 200 “Intel Inside” sites worldwide comply with privacy guidelines developed by the Online Privacy Alliance, a trade group of companies on the Web.

The OPA guidelines require Web sites to tell consumers what information is being collected, allow people to ask not to have any information gathered about them, keep private details secure and allow consumers to review their information for accuracy and correct it.

Some privacy groups took a dim view of Intel’s announcement, however. David Banisar of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center was quoted as saying the OPA guidelines themselves are “virtually worthless” because they “set up procedural barriers that consumers have to hop over to have some kind of marginal control over their information.”