NAI Blog

Today the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) took a significant step for online industry self regulation by announcing new principles governing the collection and use of Web usage data. The Multi-Site Data Principles go beyond behavioral advertising, and provide a broad framework for the collection and use of Web viewing data across non-affiliated Web sites gathered by a particular computer or device. The Multi-Site Data Principles provide clear benchmarks for user choice for multi-site data, as well as establishing restrictions on any use of such data for any adverse purpose in employment, credit, health care, or insurance eligibility determinations. Like the existing OBA principles, the new Multi-Site principles also provide specific protections for sensitive data.

The NAI applauds this significant expansion of industry self regulation and accountability. The new Multi-Site Principles are responsive to recent calls by policymakers for a more comprehensive framework governing online data collection, as well as to concerns about inappropriate secondary uses of such data. Given the breadth of participation in the DAA by companies across the online ecosystem, the new Principles will help establish a substantive framework for online choice and accountability that enhance consumer confidence.

Separately, the NAI continues to advance the deployment of the Advertising Choice icon. The icon is now supported by dozens of NAI Member companies and has already provided consumers with hundreds of billions of impressions delivering enhanced notice and choice for online behavioral advertising. Together with the new Principles, the progress to date on OBA choices shows what can be accomplished on behalf of consumers through cross-industry deployment of self-regulatory solutions.

Last Thursday, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade of the House Energy & Commerce Committee held a hearing entitled “Understanding Consumer Attitudes About Privacy.”

Among other things, the hearing focused on the successful deployment of the advertising choice icon by the cross-industry self regulatory program.  Both the Digital Advertising Alliance and NAI member Microsoft testified about how industry is providing consumers with enhanced transparency and choice for online behavioral advertising.

Witness testimony is available here.

Adopting new best practices in a large industry like online advertising can seem a little like turning a large ship. At first, to the outside observer, it may not seem like much is happening, as the changes start slowly and the ship has its existing momentum to overcome. As the ship continues to turn, however, the new course becomes clear, and it can accelerate with ever-increasing momentum.

Today, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) announced that the online advertising industry is fully turned onto the course of adoption of the “ad choices” icon, with broad participation by a hundred of the largest brand marketers, agencies and ad networks.

Not surprisingly, members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) have been among the leaders in adopting, promoting, and distributing the icon to consumer advertisers. Dozens of NAI members have enabled the use of the icon on the ads they serve today, or are rolling it out with their advertising partners within the coming weeks.

Showing that the industry is moving from development to deployment, the DAA also announced that enhanced notice using the “ad choices” icon has been served with more than 2 trillion ads. The icon is visible not just on ads served by NAI companies, but also on the sites of NAI members like Microsoft and Yahoo! that are also Web publishers. If you haven’t already seen the icon, you will soon see if far more across hundreds of other sites as this rollout reaches full deployment.

For anyone who wants to see the changes taking place in the online advertising industry to provide consumers with ubiquitous access to enhanced notice and choice, you won’t have to look far for the “ad choices” icon.

-Chuck Curran, Executive Director