DAA Blog

We had a record turnout for our Summit 19:DC across Hill Day, the Digital Advertising Accountability Workshop and the Summit itself.  It was our seventh annual Summit, as we returned to the city of first such meetup, Washington, DC.

Each Summit, a highlight is having points of view shared with us from policymakers. This year – our policy keynote from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Ranking Member of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce – was a highlight of highlights.

Following her address to us, the Congresswoman posted this announcement on her own Website.  I share it with you in its entirety:

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This week, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) helped launch Privacy for America (P4A), a new coalition with representatives from virtually every sector of advertising, and the entirety of business sectors represented among advertising users. These organizations have pledged to work together to reimagine data privacy and support groundbreaking federal legislation that establishes strong data privacy protections for all Americans.

We have joined leaders from trade organizations representing America’s top brands and advertising agencies, publishers and ad tech companies as a Privacy for America steering committee member, and we have offered our strong support and our 10+ years of experience as the consumer...

This week marked a milestone in the Digital Advertising Alliance novel self-regulatory program for interest-based advertising (IBA). One of our two independent Accountability Partners – the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) – released its 100^th compliance action since it began its enforcement role eight years ago.

Figure 1. ASRC Enforcement Actions related to DAA Principles

Beyond those 100 public actions, our Accountability Partners have...

As the U.S. Congress begins to deliberate the contours of a national standard around privacy, recent enforcement news from Europe around the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) highlights the value and effectiveness of our uniquely American model for industry self-regulation and enforcement, coupled with a federal backstop for non-compliance. In some ways, this U.S. model could almost be considered co-regulation, a combination of industry leadership with the support and muscle of the federal government, as needed.

Rather than the “...

There’s been some discussion over the last week about the effectiveness our current self-regulatory regime for digital interest-based advertising. There is always room for improvement, a goal toward which the digital advertising industry continually works collaboratively with policymakers (and which has resulted in policy updates every two years to keep pace with this rapidly-evolving medium).

More importantly, an objective historical review would recognize the tremendous success of the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) YourAdChoices program in advancing consumer privacy while preserving innovation over the last ten years.

Because it’s difficult to judge the value of any program in the abstract, let’s apply the “It’s a Wonderful Life” test from Frank Capra’s iconic movie to consider how digital advertising might work for a modern George Bailey without the DAA’s self-regulatory program.