Yahoo's new Beijing based Lab with Digital Marketing Focus/Where is Global Network Initiative on Human Rights implications?

China is the ultimate digital ad prize for many global marketers, given its large middle class, youthful population, and embrace of mobile devices.  But online marketers engaged in behavioral targeting and other forms of data collection, profiling, and online surveillance need to operate with human rights and privacy in mind.  Microsoft already has an lab in Beijing that works on behavioral targeting.  Now comes Yahoo.  As they explain:

On Tuesday, March 1, Yahoo! Labs officially announced the opening of Yahoo! Labs Beijing... It’s the seventh global Labs location, joining Silicon Valley, New York City, Barcelona, Haifa, Bangalore and Santiago, Chile....[the lab] will focus on four core aspects of Internet technology that are central to Yahoo!’s business globally: search, advertising, mobile and media.

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Yahoo is a member of the Global Network Initiative, which is supposed to promote democratic values by Internet companies.  We think the developiment of online profiling technologies for use in non-democratic regimes raises human rights issues.  It's time the Berkman Center and others involved in the Global Network Initiative did a better job on what GNI member companies are doing.  Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that GNI member Google hopes to expand its digital ad business in China: [excerpt]: Google Inc. (GOOG), which pulled its Internet search engine out of China last year, said it’s “confident” of growing in the country under new Chief Executive Officer Larry Page.

The company sees more “upside” in China, John Liu, Google’s head of sales in the world’s biggest market for Internet, said at a conference in Beijing yesterday. Google founders Page and Sergey Brin know China “very well,” he said.

Google is aiming to boost revenue from Chinese customers in display advertising and export marketing..