EchoDitto co-founder and partner, Nicco Mele appeared on CNN on April 18th discussing online privacy and ethics for online advertising.

When you use free internet sites such as Flikr, Facebook, etc. you have to create and account and check the box stating that you accept the company’s Terms of Service. But what does that really mean? Are you reading the full service terms before you start using the site? Probably not. Here, Nicco explains what these companies are often doing with the personal data that you choose to share on these sites.

“These terms of service are crazy. Sometimes they go on for hundreds of pages and its buried in the legalese exactly what they are going to do.”

“There is a quid pro quo going on. I get to use this incredible [online] service for free, they harvest all of my data and use it to sell ads. Ads that are targeted pretty tightly to me. In some ways it can improve the advertising experience…in other ways it is pretty terrifying.”

“It is about time we figured out how to talk to people in clear ways, in honest ways about whats happening when you use these web services.”

"We need to figure out what the code of ethics is for online advertising."

For more information regarding online privacy see: http://on.wsj.com/gllZsR