According to a report in DMNews, the ads
being shown in MSN Messenger are not contextually linked to the subject of the chat taking place as some reports have
suggested. They are based on the demographic information supplied when a Passport account is created. You might recall
the concerns that were raised when Google announced that Gmail would show contextual AdWords advertisements next to
each e-mail message. Not the same thing, says MSN.
"Customer confidentiality and privacy is MSN's number one priority. MSN Messenger advertisements are based on
demographic information the user provides when creating their Passport account, such as age, gender, language, zip code
and country," said David Jakubowski, general manager of MSN Search Strategy and Go-to-Market."
