What does OBA stand for?

OBA stands for Online Behavioral Advertising. This type of target-group-oriented advertisement stands for the provision of digital advertisement, which is determined by the user’s surfing behavior. For this, the user’s temporary storage will locally store so-called cookies on the hard drive. Located in these cookies is information about the user’s activities such as e.g. his or her surfing behavior, every website that has been visited, discontinued or interrupted purchases, clicked-on ad banners, etc. The procedure allows websites to recognize the visitor. Based on the collected data, advertisements can be displayed in a very precise and targeted manner, meaning the user will be shown the types of advertisement that appeal to him or her as a consumer.

Since personal data and data protection are currently heavily discussed topics that do involve some uncertainty, many Internet users have an uneasy feeling about the storage of usage data. Even when the type of usage data does not generally permit for personal identification – meaning that the storage does not generally affect any personally identifiable information (PII) – many users still tend to feel as if they are being pursued or tracked when cookies are made use of.

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