SEATTLE – Omar Tawakol, and a team of seasoned executives with decades of experience in online advertising, behavioral targeting, and data mining, have launched BlueKai, an online data exchange that is focused on intent data and consumer control.

BlueKai partners with data sellers to aggregate anonymous shopping and research behaviors across the Internet and auctions that data to drive monetization in a privacy-friendly way, enabling buyers to boost ad targeting quality and scale, the company said.

By separating access of data from access of media, BlueKai is enabling advertisers, ad networks, and publishers to buy and own online data to increase the scale and quality of in-market ad targeting initiatives. The new company focuses on uniquely valuable intent data that include purchase-driven behaviors such as searches for auto, travel, and product comparisons.

“BlueKai’s vision for a data exchange stemmed from solving a fundamental online advertising challenge: the ability to assemble truly qualified online audiences at significant scale. At the core, the industry lacks a standard for defining audience quality and it has become acceptable for audience definitions to be vague and inconsistent,” said Tawakol, the new company’s CEO. “At BlueKai, we believe that data access will re-invent the way the industry thinks about online ad targeting. Much like the offline world, where people buy highly qualified lists to reach their audiences, BlueKai will bring the same level of intelligence, clarity, and targeting maturity to the online community.”

In a privacy initiative, BlueKai will enable consumers to see the information that has been collected about them through BlueKai data providers. Via an online tool available at www.bluekai.com, consumers will have the ability to edit their online preferences or opt out completely. A next release is aimed to provide additional features including the ability to ‘add’ products or services consumers are in the market for, resulting in more control and influence over the advertising they receive.