Behavioral Advertising

Advertising that's tailored to individuals based on their observed online behavior across websites and over time, rather than just the content of the current page. Behavioral advertising tracks your browsing history, clicks, searches, and interactions to build profiles predicting your interests and likelihood to respond to specific ads. Also called interest-based advertising, this practice powers much of the free internet by making ads more relevant and valuable. However, it involves extensive personal data collection through cookies, pixels, and cross-site tracking. Privacy laws increasingly regulate behavioral advertising, often requiring opt-in consent for tracking cookies, transparency about data collection practices, and mechanisms for users to control or opt out. The rise of privacy regulations and browser tracking restrictions is fundamentally changing the behavioral advertising ecosystem.