DAA Blog

This week, the Digital Advertising Alliance will start its fulfillment of our Enforcement in Action casebook – a summary of learnings from five years of U.S. enforcement of DAA Principles in the interest-based advertising marketplace.

“Casebook” may sound like a legal resource – and it certainly can be useful to counsel – but its true intent is to be a resource throughout marketing organizations… brand managers, marketing practitioners, strategic advisors, product development, compliance contacts, tech folks, anyone engaged with the responsible collection of user browsing and app usage data – as well as other user data categories – for the purposes of serving a relevant ad.

There’s no shortage of credit to give for all the contributors for the substance in this 200-page-plus resource – but I want to especially acknowledge our Accountability Partners – the Council of Better Business Bureaus Advertising Self-Regulatory Council and the Data & Marketing Association’s Corporate Responsibility Team in particular– plus our own counsel at Venable LLP for their herculean effort to bring this one-stop resource to fruition. 

The dozens of cases and the reporting documented to date in this volume have vital teaching for both first parties and third parties, on desktops and mobile, on how DAA Principles for Interest-based Advertising, Multi-Site Data Collection, and DAA Mobile Guidance are interpreted and enforced. [Our DAA Cross-Device...

With the recent announcement by eight trade associations – several of them founders of the Digital Advertising Alliance – around cross-platform standards of video ad delivery, it underscored just how important to the current and future state of advertising digital video has become.

Whether on desktop, laptop or mobile devices – time spent with video has been rising fast, advertising included. We’re now spending five-plus hours a day with video in all formats – up a full hour from six years ago, according to eMarketer. Nearly all of the growth in viewing is online.

Which is why it’s particularly important for self-regulation to keep up with users.

Looking back to late 2014 and early 2015, I’m particularly grateful our program, working through a dedicated Digital Advertising Alliance video working group (with thanks to the Interactive Advertising Bureau for its focused support toward this effort), formulated DAA icon and ad marker specifications for interest-based ads (IBA) in video formats – which first were released last fall. The resulting specifications document – a working...

One thing I’ve learned from working in the ad industry is that building a brand can be a long and challenging process. The DAA only started that process about six years ago, when the cross-industry program and its AdChoices Icon were first launched, but – happily – we’ve made significant progress since then.

Since our founding, the industry has rallied behind behind ongoing public education initiatives to build awareness of the AdChoices Icon, including a major campaign early in our history. More recently, as the program and its offerings have grown, we’ve updated our educational efforts.  Our newest campaign has secured the support of some of the largest players in the space – including AOL, AppNexus, AT&T, Cox Digital Solutions, Criteo, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Quantcast, RocketFuel, Washington Post Digital, and Xaxis (to date) – all of whom generously have assisted with inventory.

We also have the unique advantage of the broad usage of the Icon itself, as that familiar blue triangle is served more than a trillion times each month to consumers around the world, many of whom are learning about the program through their exposure to and interactions with it. Our new mobile- and...

Earlier this month, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s self-regulatory program passed a significant milestone, as the 10 millionth unique user exercised an opt out on the DAA’s Consumer Choice Page (https://optout.aboutads.info/).  While impressive, that number is not exhaustive, as dozens of companies offer parallel opt-outs to users through their own individual mechanisms.

The DAA’s Choice Page makes it easier for users to exercise control over how information about their interests is used for relevant advertising on the Web. This centralized cross-industry resource now includes 129 participating companies, and allows consumers to opt out with one, several, or all these companies.

Happily, the choice that consumers exercise through the DAA is only part of the much larger consumer awareness made possible by the cross-industry self-regulatory program.  Through the program’s ubiquitous AdChoices icon, which has been served trillions of times globally, consumers have gained enhanced transparency into when information about their interests is being collected or used for the ads they see online.  Awareness of the Icon has continued to rise.

Consumers clicking on the Icon literally get fingertip control over their experience -- depending on the participating...

“We’re going global, so I hope you’ve got your data passports ready,” said Peter Kosmala, senior vice president, government affairs, 4A’s, who moderated a Digital Advertising Alliance Summit 2016 Panel, “Global Exchange Around Relevance.” “These are particularly exciting times to be in interest-based advertising, not just in the U.S., but in Canada, and most certainly in Europe where there are significant changes coming very soon.” Kosmala was referencing the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield recently agreed upon and approved by the European Union (EU) and the United States. Privacy Shield will enable transatlantic data flow under the condition that necessary safeguards and transparency are upheld by the U.S. government, therefore assuring protection of European citizens.

Photo: Moderator, Peter Kosmala, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, 4A’s

Canada

Julie Ford, executive director, Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada, spoke about the accomplishments and current state of the DAA program there. A study conducted by The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) found that notice and opt-out options were given to web users 96 percent of the time in Canada – showing penetration and practice of a key tenet embodied in DAA Principles, the Consumer Control...