Thomas revealed that he is soon to visit the US Federal Trade Commission to update himself on its progress with allowing US practitioners to self-regulate.
The commissioner was responding to a question as to whether the practice needs to be regulated by law. His remarks come in the week that saw the Internet Advertising Bureau issue a new behavioural targeting code, endorsed yesterday by Ofcom at the ISBA conference.
"The core principals of the IAB's code are transparency, notice and education and we could all sign up to that," Thomas said. "I'm not seeing any mass demand for regulation of behavioural advertising but I am conscious that if those involved don't get it right, that may change."
Thomas continued: "The FTC in the US has published its revised report on behavioural advertising [advocating self-regulation] and I am going to the FTC to talk to them on where they are [with it].
"Commissioner Jon Leibowitz of the FTC has said simply that this could be the last clear chance that self regulation will protect consumer privacy. In broad terms I would sign up to that philosophy - that if the market can get it right and avoid problems, then the case for statutory intervention will be much reduced."
The IAB estimates that behavioural advertising could generate an income of £200m for UK online advertisers.
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