23 Sep 2008Online advertising is failing users and advertisers both. Such ads often provide the gateway for computer security problems ranging from click fraud to spyware. And "malvertisement" banner ads purport to sell anti-spyware software, but only make matters worse, says HBS professor Ben Edelman.
Edelman describes the ad landscape and explains how users and advertisers can protect themselves in a working paper available for download, "Securing Online Advertising: Rustlers and Sheriffs in the New Wild West."
To wit: "Online advertising remains a 'Wild West' where users are faced with ads they ought not to believe and where firms overpay for ads without getting what they were promised in return. But it doesn't have to be this way. Enforcement by public agencies is starting to remind advertisers and ad networks that long-standing consumer protection rules still apply online. And as advertisers become more sophisticated, they're less likely to tolerate opaque charges for services they can't confirm they received."
Also up this week, an article on individual willingness to take drugs intended to enhance fundamental traits, and another on managing proprietary and shared platforms. Business cases describe Citigroup, the World Wildlife Fund U.S., and other organizations facing a turning point.
—Martha Lagace
