Yahoo has launched a scheme showing visitors to its sites how their data is used in customising adverts.
Ad Choices places an icon on online adverts and enables users to find out who put the advert in place and what made it tailored to them specifically in the click of a mouse.
More importantly though, it allows users to manage their own preferences when it comes to targeted advertising.
Although just a pilot scheme in the UK, Yahoo has been using the same system in the US since last year and believes the symbol approach is better than text.
"The idea of a visual symbol in and around every ad we show is to remind users that their information is being used and to give them a portal, a pathway, into what data is being used and the controls they have over them," Justin Weiss, international privacy director at Yahoo, told the Financial Times.
The launch comes as internet companies prepare for new EU legislation, forcing them to gain consent from users before they use tracking cookies. This is the way users' interests are garnered and, in turn, advertising is targeted.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) warned the new rules set to come into force on 25 May would be "a challenge" but would have "positive benefits" for the public, giving them more choice and control over how their data is used.
Delicious sale on the cards?
Yahoo also hit the headlines today as rumours increased around the sale of Delicious.
Although it has been known since December Yahoo was looking to sell off the bookmarking service and reports suggested developers had either been axed or moved elsewhere, it is only now a real interested party seems to have come forward.
StumbleUpon is reported to be the bidder, looking to pick up Delicious for a tasty $1 million (622,000).
Yahoo acquired Delicious for an undisclosed sum back in December 2005.
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