At its annual meeting in Phoenix, The Interactive Advertising Bureau has approved "privacy principles" to be submitted to the FTC by the end of the month. Companies who fall under the IAB guidelines include AOL, CNN, Facebook, Microsoft and other big players. The IAB's new principles are:

1. CONSUMERS SHOULD BE PROVIDED MEANINGFUL NOTICE ABOUT THE INFORMATION COLLECTED AND USED FOR INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING

2. CONSUMERS SHOULD BE INFORMED OF THEIR CHOICES REGARDING INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING AND EMPOWERED TO EXERCISE THOSE CHOICES

3. BUSINESSES SHOULD IMPLEMENT APPROPRIATE INFORMATION SECURITY PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES

4. BUSINESSES SHOULD BE RESPONSIVE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO CONSUMERS

5. COMPANIES SHOULD EDUCATE CONSUMERS ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING

These new rules come with explanations and details. To read the full text, see here. The IAB releasing these new rules may not be as fun as say, checking out the Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe photos, but what can one do? Lohan is pretty hard to beat. Yet, what is a little thrilling is that rules the IAB have laid down are far more lax than those proposed by the FTC.

IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg said: "IAB members understand the relationship between consumers and companies is built on trust. As a result, IAB members have long been committed to guarding consumers' information and privacy. Based on the industry's experience, we believe the FTC is too rigid on the matters of notice and choice."

The guidelines presented are "high level concepts" rather than strict rules for dealing with consumer data and choice. The IAB also released guidelines for online lead generation practices. All this in attempt to keep the FTC from laying down the law? We get it.