DAA

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), a consortium of the nation’s largest media and marketing associations that has established self-regulatory standards for online behavioral advertising, announced on October 13 that the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will begin enforcement of the Application of the DAA Principles of Transparency and Control to

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), a consortium of the nation’s largest media and marketing associations that has established self-regulatory standards for online behavioral advertising, announced on May 7 that the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will begin enforcement of the Application of Self-Regulatory Principles to the Mobile Environment (DAA Mobile

This week, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law held a hearing to discuss the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014, a bill reintroduced in March by Senator Al Franken (D-MN).  Most concerned with the potential for misuse and abuse of location data for purposes of stalking and perpetrating domestic violence, Senator Franken, who chairs the Subcommittee on Privacy, made clear at the hearing his view that, “Stalking apps must be shut down.”  Franken clarified, however, that his bill is not only intended to protect victims of stalking, but provides basic privacy safeguards for sensitive location information pertaining to all consumers.  Most critically, Senator Franken suggested that because location data lacks sufficient legislative protection, some of the most popular apps used widely by average consumers have been found to disclose users’ precise location to third parties without obtaining user permission.  Further, he noted that in light of stalking apps that are deceptively labeled as something else, such as “parental monitoring,” it is necessary to create a law with basic rules for any service that collects location information.

The witnesses representing law enforcement, federal agencies, and consumer-advocacy and anti-domestic violence groups gave testimony sharing Senator Franken’s concerns, and also suggested that industry self-regulation in this area so far has not been consistent or transparent.  Jessica Rich, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, for example, noted that broadly speaking, while many industry groups and individual companies purport to adopt the opt-in model as a best practice, enforcement has shown that the standard is in fact not complied with on a regular basis. 

In response, witnesses representing industry largely rejected the notion that legislation like Senator Franken’s is needed at this time.  Expressing particular worry that laws and regulations are inflexible and can quickly become outdated in the face of rapidly evolving technologies, Lou Mastria, Executive Director of the Digital Advertising Association (“DAA”), testified that innovation is better served by self-regulation, which can adapt to new business models because it is more “nimble” than government regulation, as subcommittee ranking member Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) phrased it.  Mr. Mastria pointed to the DAA’s Self-Regulatory Principles as an effective framework for self-regulation.  Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, however, contested the usefulness of DAA’s code, calling it weak, “full of holes,” and “late to the game,” especially in the face of her view that there is “monumental evidence that self-regulation is not working.”Continue Reading Senate Subcommittee Examines “Stalking Apps” Bill

Earlier this week, the organization that enforces the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising issued a “Compliance Warning” to website operators, advising them to provide “enhanced notice” on every web page where data is being collected or used for online behavioral advertising (“OBA”) by January 1, 2014

The DAA

The World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”) Tracking Protection Working Group (“TPWG”) on Wednesday announced the addition of two new chairs to spearhead its efforts to craft an online tracking mechanism. The new chairs, Center for Democracy and Technology Director Justin Brookman, and Adobe Systems, Inc. Carl Cargill will be joining Intel Corp.’s Matthias Schunter in

The Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) on Tuesday announced that it will withdraw from the World Wide Web Consortium (“W3C”) tracking protection working group (“TPWG”), saying that the TPWG has “reached the end of its useful life.”

In a letter to the TPWG (full text available here), DAA Managing Director Lou Mastria explained that: “After

At the Wired for Change conference earlier this week, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz noted that the FTC is developing a “nutrition label” for data collection and use, modeled after the nutrition facts label for food and beverages.  Leibowitz reportedly said that the agency’s chief technologist and the Bureau of Consumer Protection are working to identify “five essential terms” that should be included in these standardized privacy policies.  California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who spoke on the same panel as Leibowitz, supported the idea of food labels for mobile apps, according to reporters’ tweets

The concept of a nutrition label for privacy has been under discussion in the privacy community for some time.  In July 2001, FTC Commissioner Sheila Anthony suggested that nutrition labels and EnergyGuide labels could serve as models for standardized privacy policies.  Several academics have developed standardized table formats for privacy policies, and research from Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab has found that standardized privacy policy formats allow readers to find information more accurately and quickly. Continue Reading FTC Working on Privacy “Nutrition Label”; Industry Focusing on Icons

On Monday, the Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program, which monitors compliance with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, issued a decision finding that the auto company Kia had failed to adhere to the Principles.  The Accountability Program also issued decisions stating that Kia’s ad agency–and the ad network the agency had

By Ryan Mowery

In a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee last Thursday, a representative from the advertising industry vigorously defended its self-regulatory regime for online behavioral advertising.  Other witnesses were less sanguine about the efficacy of self-regulation, while Committee Chairman Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) decried the current state of consumer privacy protection in the U.S. and urged adoption of “Do Not Track” legislation. Continue Reading Sufficiency of Self-Regulation Debated in Senate Commerce Hearing

The Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising continues to gather steam.  Last month, after the Program garnered favorable mention in the FTC’s final privacy report, a representative of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (one of the DAA’s participating organizations) announced that the Program’s Advertising Option Icon is now being served in more