We have been doing a monthly column with ClickZ on Behavioral Targeting for several months.  OMMA (Mediapost) had a one day conference on the topic in SF yesterday which really was excellent.  Major themes were privacy, Web 2.0, privacy, predictive modeling and did I mention privacy?

I’m actually a huge fan of BT especially as it is becoming more and more sophisticated.  We have written previously about the predictive modeling techniques being used by ValueClick, ACerno and Epic Advertising - three companies using very different methodologies to serve up highly targeted ads to the right audiences.  AdBrite, another ad network,  has now just annouced that they are throwing their hat in the BT ring.

But the panel that was the most interesting, and contentious, yesterday was the one on privacy.  the panel consisted of several lawyers, a VP from AlmondNet, a fellow from TrustE.  The lawyers for the most part, sided with the consumer to the extreme – any possible invasion of privacy – even if just perceived, was unacceptable.  The industry is clearly not doing an adequate job of policing itself, and needs 3rd party regulation.  The conversation was quite heated – exciting actually to have participants from outside the industry throwing cold water on those of us in it.

My bet is still with the predictive modeling vendors.  Having grown up in the direct response industry, where predictive modeling was born and still rules many prospecting efforts, I can’t wait to see how that level of expertise translated to online.