How much of the mortgage crisis was fueled by deceptive, targeted Internet ads? We don't know that, but we know the ad giants will take their share of the hit. Over at his Digital Destiny blog, Jeff Chester points out that Internet advertising giants and search engines will be next to face the mortgage meltdown-- lots of their advertisers are subprime lenders, or lead generators to them. In his blog entry Role of Interactive Advertising & the Subprime Scandal: Another wake-up call for FTC Jeff cites a number of authoritative recent sources on the nexus between Internet ads and subprime mortgages. One additional point I'll add is this: in a chart of top web advertisers from a ZDNET column Jeff posts, Experian is listed as the 3rd largest advertiser. Some of you may think Experian and its ubiquitous "freecreditreport.com" ads are just along for the ride. Actually, Experian also owns lowermybills.com, a subprime mortgage referral, or lead generator, company. On the New York Times Bits blog, Brad Stone notes LowerMyBills Lowers Its Ad Bill.

Along with Jeff Chester and his Center for Digital Democracy, we are looking forward to the FTC's planned November 1-2 digital "Town Hall" to investigate online privacy issues.