US Online Ad Biz Flawed Privacy Plan Exported to EU/US Role Promoting Data Collection Should Be Criticized

The online ad industry developed its data-collection business model without ever considering the privacy consequences.  Advocates and regulators have forced the industry to begin to address the privacy and some of the digital consumer protection issues.  But the commitment to privacy from the industry is tepid, at best.  Afterall, the harvesting and analysis of massive amounts of information from and about us is the digital golden goose enriching Google, Facebook, WPP and others.  In order to fight regulation, the US online ad lobby dreamed up their "icon" scheme--sort of a digital talisman to ward off the enactment of serious consumer safeguards by the FTC and Congress.
 
Anyone who follows the online ad biz knows that Icon system hatched by the Digital Ad Alliance isn't effective.  Academics have weighed in, including recently, with new studies that demonstrate its inadequacies.  Now, the US DAA is exporting the very same inadequate plan to its EU lobbying allies.   We expect that the Article 29 Working Party, and responsible regulators, will see through this scheme that doesn't provide meaningful consumer control over how data is collected and used.  It's time for our FTC to get more serious about the icon-based systems inability to protect consumer privacy.
 
See excerpts from the Clickz story below:
 
The official extension of the ad industry's self-regulatory behavioral ad icon to Europe is en route. The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), the online ad industry coalition behind the icon, is working closely with a consortium of pan European self regulatory advertising industry groups. In a matter of weeks, the group in Europe is expected to license the DAA's AdChoices icon, which notifies users when an ad is targeted based on behavioral and other data.

The European body includes the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe, IAB U.K., European Advertising Standards Alliance and World Federation of Advertisers, along with Microsoft and behavioral targeting firm Nugg.ad, according to Peter Kosmala, SVP of government affairs at the 4A's, who is working with the European groups on behalf of the DAA. The body will officially become the European DAA soon, he said.

"There will be a formal incorporation of the [Europe DAA] in Brussels," said Kosmala, who recently left his director role at the DAA to join the 4A's. Though he no longer holds a title with DAA, he is handling the organization's international relationships as part of his new position with the 4A's, a founding member of the DAA.

In the interest of standardization, the Europe DAA (EDAA) will license the icon that is used in ads served in the U.S. However, Kosmala stressed he doesn't expect that the European body will replicate the U.S. DAA's privacy framework or the functionality of the backend system used here.

"We're simply giving them trademark permission to use our icon," said Kosmala.

Companies including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and others have already implemented the icon in ads on their own in Europe, according to Mike Zaneis, the IAB's SVP and general counsel.
from: "European DAA And Privacy Ad Icon Coming Soon"

Kate Kaye  |  April 3, 2012