Digital Allies Offer Ad Opt-Out Option

Several marketing organizations have joined together to implement a system that allows consumers to opt out of behavioral advertising. The Digital Advertising Alliance—comprised of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, American Advertising Federation, Association of National Advertisers, Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau—is rolling out the Advertising Option Icon.Ads targeted using past Internet browsing history will carry the small logo. Clicking it will bring notice of the targeting used and direct people to a page with options for blocking behavioral targeting. With this step, the industry hopes to escape regulatory pressure from the Federal Trade Commission and Congress. The FTC has urged the industry to do a better job of disclosing to users how ads are targeted—and provide easy opportunities for stopping it if they so choose. "It provides enhanced notice and real transparency and choices to consumers in respect to online behavioral advertising," said Stu Ingis, a partner at Venable LLP. The system is a follow-up to behavioral ad principles the industry drew up in July 2009. Those tenets endorsed the notion of letting consumers easily opt out of behavioral targeting. Privacy groups have criticized the industry for forcing consumers to opt out of data collection for advertising. The industry has maintained that an opt-in regime is impossible to implement and would cripple the viability of ad-supported digital content that relies on targeting for ad effectiveness. The move marks the most significant regulation the industry has imposed on companies and goes significantly farther than the Network Advertising Initiative, which held third-party advertisers needed to allow consumers to opt out. Doing so, however, was a cumbersome process. "The guys that drive the industry have figured out this privacy stuff does matter," said Scott Meyer, CEO of Better Advertising Project, which will help companies comply with the requirements. Participating in the regulatory system will become a requirement for members of the NAI and DMA. Next year, the Council of Better Business Bureaus will start monitoring and enforcing the regulations. The lingering question is whether the move will satisfy critics who want the government to crack down on ad practices. In the long run, it wasn't possible for the industry to do nothing, said Chris Babel, CEO of TRUSTe, which is applying for certification as a monitoring provider. "You have the need to step up and do more," he said. "Whether this is enough or not isn't clear."

Performance Marketing

Digital Allies Offer Ad Opt-Out Option

Brian Morrissey

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Brian Morrissey