Despite attempts to provide targeted advertising on the internet, most people see the same ads when they visit various sites, and targeting efforts often fail to be precise enough to allow for the maximum potential benefit of the targeting. Sometimes this is because the targeting techniques used by the site are ineffective, but many times this is because no targeting is used at all. Often, the web site finds it easier to sell ads against the entire user population on the site, and the ease of selling overcomes the potential benefits of targeting. Today's internet advertising systems use crude profiling techniques that do not provide a comprehensive view of the consumer. As a result targeting is not as precise or effective as it could be.
Most sites only know about a user's behavior on that specific site.
Even these systems have incomplete and inaccurate information about consumers and are thus limited in their ability to provide accurate and effective targeting for advertising and marketing. One of the largest advertising markets, local and regional advertising, is under-served by the Internet. Because of the aforementioned poor targeting systems, it is difficult to deliver ads from local business to the residents of the communities they serve. This is causing a backlash among consumers. Consumer privacy has become a hot issue.