By Lou Mastria
Big Idea: Democracy in action is powerful, especially when it’s face to face. Our participation in this year’s “Advertising Day on the Hill” was a key step in a process to move a newly introduced comprehensive privacy bill forward in Congress.
On May 13, 2026, organizations and representatives across the advertising community made their way to Capitol Hill to ask Members of Congress and their staff to move forward in considering H.R. 8413, the SECURE Data Act. Photo 1: Don Lowery, Senior Vice President - Corporate Reputation, Public Affairs, Nielsen; Alison Pepper, EVP, Government Relations, 4As; and Justin Thomas-Copeland, CEO, 4As. Photo 2: Meghan Salome, Senior Director, Government Relations, Association of National Advertisers; Lou Mastria, CEO, Digital Advertising Alliance; Jeff Minsky, Vice President, AI and Marketing Futures, Association of National Advertisers; and David Bryne, a digital safety, integrity and AI responsibility advisor.
Over the last decade, more than 20 states have passed their own versions of comprehensive privacy legislation, creating a patchwork of state laws that only cover a portion of Americans while driving confusion and high compliance costs among the businesses that depend on digital advertising.
That’s why the Privacy for America coalition, of which DAA is a part, has been working with leaders in Congress to develop a preemptive federal privacy law that provides broad national protections for consumers while establishing a consistent federal regulatory structure for businesses.
That bill, the SECURE Data Act (H.R. 8413), was introduced last month by the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and it was built around the common principles that have been established in state laws across the country, including notice-and-choice mechanisms that are built into industry codes of conduct, such as the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Principles.
The adoption of that consensus approach was not an accident. It happened because of the tireless work of the DAA’s founding associations at the state level over the last decade in educating legislators about our complicated industry and helping them draft legislation that gives consumers control without undermining the vital free and low-cost digital services that responsible advertising supports. From our surveys, we know that consumers strongly support the current digital advertising model, and the SECURE Act would allow it to continue to benefit consumers, innovators, and the economy. The DAA has supported educative state efforts by filing joint comments, in 2026 alone, with our partners at the 4As, Association of National Advertisers, and American Advertising Federation in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Hawai’i, Washington, Nebraska, Maryland, Maine, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, California, Tennessee, District of Columbia, Alaska and Vermont. All of our comments have focused on our deep expertise in consumer experience and urged harmonization of standards across states.
The SECURE Data Act, preserves a role for state enforcement, alongside the Federal Trade Commission and other federal law enforcement, while providing one national privacy standard for all Americans. It builds on the common elements of state laws passed and signed by hundreds of elected officials across both parties, such as notice, correction, deletion, portability, and opt-out rights.
By following the best practices of both Republican and Democratic states, this approach fulfills former US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’s vision of the states as “laboratories of democracy.” (Importantly to DAA, Brandeis was also the Supreme Court justice to note the importance of transparency by saying, “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant.”)
The SECURE Data Act and its consensus approach also recognizes the benefits of tailored ads and the need for responsibly handled data to deliver them, as an efficient way for all businesses to compete, grow, create and serve consumers, subject to a data rights framework, thus providing one national standard for all Americans.
Ad industry leaders visit Capitol Hill to discuss the SECURE Data Act.
On May 12 and 13 this year, a coalition of organizations and businesses that represents the full spectrum of our ecosystem – brands, publishers, agencies and ad tech – went to Capitol Hill and called upon both Republicans and Democrats to move forward with this vital, common-sense legislation.
At our recent DAA Summit, DAA Counsel Michael Signorelli, Partner, Venable LLP introduced Dante Cutrona, Chief of Staff for Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), lead sponsor of the SECURE Data Act.
As our DAA Summit 26 policy keynote speaker Dante Cutrona, who helped Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) develop the bill, told attendees that progress can be achieved, step by step, in 2026.
A full-page advertisement from Privacy for America in the May 13 print edition of The Hill underscores the industry’s support for the SECURE Data Act, calling for its consideration.
In the meantime, the Privacy for America coalition is using the media to raise the visibility of this effort and educate members of Congress and their staff through full-page ads in The Hill newspaper and Politico, and a mobile video billboard on Capitol Hill.
Put simply, the SECURE Data Act aligns the foundational elements of state law and codifies it into a single national standard to protect both consumers and the small businesses that depend on digital advertising.
Please ask your Member of Congress to support the SECURE Data Act (H.R. 8413).
