On November 1st and 2nd, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted a 2-day workshop "to address the consumer protection issues raised by the practice of tracking consumers' activities online to target advertising - or 'behavioral advertising.'"

A copy of the Agenda (which includes all the presentations made) can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/ehavioral/agenda.pdf.

For companies that collect, use or maintain a consumer's activities online - whether by employing third-party network advertisers, providing contextual or behavioral advertising solely within their own or related websites, or even possibly displaying non-advertising information (such as news stories or business intelligence) - the Town Hall discussions and potential follow-on actions by the FTC and Congress are worth careful monitoring. There are several areas where further investigations, and even enforcement actions, may be likely.

For more information, please see the complete Mintz Levin Privacy and Security Alert.