Does this New York Times story imply even slower growth for online display advertising which is already down from $4.8 billion in 2008 to $4.6 billion in 2009, according to eMarketer estimates?

About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California-Berkeley. … The topic may be technical, but it has become a hot political issue. Privacy advocates are telling Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that tracking of online activities by Web sites and advertisers has gone too far, and the lawmakers seemto be listening. … Marketers are arguing that advertising supports free online content. Major advertising trade groups proposed in July some measures that they hoped would fend off regulation, like a clear notice to consumers when they were being tracked.

As Congress and the FTC weigh in on behavioral targeting, the implications for online display advertising are not great. Increasingly, marketers are turning to Facebook and other forms of social media,  behavioral targeting technologies and ad network tools to track consumers’ online behavior–their shopping, reading and browsing habits–to deliver the right kinds of messages to them with the appropriate frequency. These tools are par for the course as online advertising on the backend grows more sophisticated.

Will lawmakers place restrictions on what advertisers can and cannot do? Will they require advertisers or portals to issue disclosure statements? Whatever happens could have a significant impact on online ad growth.