IAB Fights Privacy Law Provisions
July 26 2010
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is testifying before Congress to express the advertising industry's 'serious reservations' about two legislative proposals which it says 'jeopardize the Internet and ...interactive advertising'.
The so-called 'Best Practices Act', HR 5777, was tabled a week ago by Illinois Representative Bobby Rush, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection, following the release of a discussion draft of privacy legislation made last May by U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and Cliff Stearns, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee.
The IAB's Vice President of Public Policy, Mike Zaneis, will appear at the hearing, which tackles both proposals, and express support for Chairman Rush's recognition of the value and importance of strong industry self-regulation, and for of the need for flexibility in the way consumers receive notice about data collection practices. However, the IAB says it opposes three particular tenets of the Act as it stands:
- interference with the relationship between first-party publishers and their customers - it says first party data practices should be exempt from opt out requirements
- the possibility of following an 'unworkable opt-in approach': it says legislation should follow the FTC and self-regulatory framework to third-party data transfers, providing an opt-out standard; and
- an overly broad definition of 'sensitive data' which could constrain and damage multicultural marketing and media looking to tailor content and ads to their specific audiences.
Zaneis says the industry has 'a long and successful history of protecting consumers' privacy rights through effective self-regulation' and states: 'Given the free content and services that consumers enjoy because of advertising revenue, it is imperative that any new laws be carefully tailored... We are concerned that, as currently drafted, both proposals would unduly hinder online advertising and the Internet, which are dynamic engines of innovation and job creation in the U.S. economy.'
The IAB says it commissioned a study in 2009, conducted by Harvard Business School Professors John Deighton and John Quelch, which demonstrated that 'the advertising-supported Internet' represented $300 billion of US economic activity - 2.1% of total GDP - directly employing more than 1.2 million Americans with above-average wages in jobs that did not exist two decades ago; and indirectly providing work for another 1.9m in work supporting those jobs.
Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB, says the proposals 'threaten to seriously impact - and even shut down - a multitude of products and services that consumers have come to depend on in their daily lives.'
The IAB has done much to push forward self-regulation in the industry. In January 2009 it formed an
online privacy alliance with some of the USA's largest media and marketing trade associations - the AAAA, ANA, DMA and BBB - to develop self-regulatory principles to address concerns about the use of online consumer data for behavioral advertising purposes: a move immediately praised by FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour and FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz.
A full copy of the IAB testimony is available at
www.iab.net/media/file/Zaneis_ConsumerProtectionSubcommittee.pdf .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
