IAB Attacks EU, W3C. Says Protecting Privacy Online is Bigger threat to the Internet than SOPA or PIPA!

When the head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB/US) goes on a tirade in front of the world's leading digital marketing and advertising companies, it's worth noting what's the alarm about.  According to IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg, the biggest threat to the Internet today isn't SOPA or PIPA--it's the work of the EU and W3C to protect consumer privacy! No, it's not April Fools.  You have to see this YouTube video of his speech to realize how irresponsible the leading online advertising trade association and lobby group is.  He says, in part:

"The threats to our industry are very, very real....there are equal grave dangers lurking out there that require even more engagement than SOPA or PIPA did.  For example, political activists have infilitrated a body called the Worldwide Web Consortium, the W3C.  The once neutral technical standards writing body for the Internet.  And they are attempting to encode  specific forms of Do-Not-Track technology into browsers that would create the potential for the global blacklisting of legitimate news, entertainment and commerce sites....And you probably also didn't know that powerful regulators inside the European Commission are recommending the passage of a "Right-to-Be-Forgotten"...which will require all owners of electronic databases of any sort to remove any information that consumers deem personal.  The impact on news organizations, electronic library catalogs, Internet search, direct-response advertising; basically everything we do, including traditional disciplines, is incalcuable.  And if the EU passes it it has impact on companies operating in America.  These brewing crisis are even more threatening to interactive media and commerce than SOPA or PIPA were.  Yet they have generated no site black-outs and no mass social media protests.  And they're only the tip of the iceberg."
 
Mr. Rothenberg owes an apology to the W3C, and everyone else working to legitimately address privacy and consumer protections issues online (such as the EU).  It's ironic that Rothenberg goes after the W3C, which includes many of his members, such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Disney, and Google (these and other companies are part of the very W3C Tracking Protection Work Group he attacks).  We believe that the IAB US has lost any legitimacy in the debate over privacy, including its role in the DAA's work to address privacy concerns.  The White House should review its support of the DAA's proposal for Do-Not Track, and withdraw support until there is a promise they will work as part of the W3C.  The IAB should no longer be represented within the DAA--and the IAB EU should publicly renounce the attack on the European Commission.  
More to follow.