DAA Blog

Kudos to eConsultancy on its recent blog post; DAA particularly welcomed these two observations of the author – both of which properly frame what Microsoft’s IE10 plans may be really about:

    “In other words, if, as a result of DNT and other initiatives and regulations yet to be implemented, advertisers feel that they're less able to deliver ads to consumers online in a targeted fashion, it stands to reason that online ads lose some of their luster and thus become less valuable. That, in turn, may make it more difficult for publishers to monetize their eyeballs.

    Obviously, advertisers won't abandon digital; but if they pay less for ads that are less-capable, the grand bargain between publishers and consumers -- your attention for content and functionality -- may become more difficult for many publishers to maintain.”

One question that frequently arises about the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice Page – the place where consumers can express individualized or program-wide choice about whether or not to receive interest-based ads – is how to “harden” these choices so that they persist even if consumers clear cookies on their computers.  The answer is to use another feature that’s been offered on our Consumer Choice Page since early 2012:  Protect My Choices.

The digital ad networks that serve ads on behalf of their client brands place cookies on users’ computers that enable user inferences and interests to enable a more relevant ad to be served to the consumer, as this video on our YourAdChoices.com site explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbP8Ml5NssI&t=15s

The DAA’s Consumer Choice preferences program also relies on browser cookies to remember users’ opt out choices. Except what happens when a consumer accidentally or deliberately deletes his or her cookies?  Do the preferences then get deleted, too?

The answer is that these preferences do get deleted – but not if users install the “Protect My Choices” browser plug-ins for their particular browser: ...

Today, the Digital Advertising Alliance chose to exit the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Tracking Protection Working Group (TPWG), after a two-year attempt to finalize “do not track” definitions and technical specifications for the Internet. Going forward, DAA will pursue its own forum to evaluate how browser-based signals can meaningfully address consumer privacy.

Our letter to W3C Chief Executive Officer Jeff Jaffe follows:

September 16, 2013

Jeff Jaffe, CEO
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Re: DAA Participation in Tracking Protection Working Group (TPWG)

Dear Mr. Jaffe:

After serious consideration, the leadership of the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) has agreed that the DAA will withdraw from future participation in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Tracking Protection Working Group (TPWG).  After more than two years of good-faith effort and having contributed significant resources, the DAA no longer believes that the TPWG is capable of fostering the development of a workable “do not track” (“dnt”) solution. As we depart W3C and TPWG, DAA will focus its resources on convening its own forum to evaluate how browser-based signals can be used meaningfully to address consumer privacy.

During more than two years since the W3C began its attempt at a dnt standard, the DAA has delivered real tools to millions of consumers. It has grown participation; enhanced transparency with more than a trillion ad...

At a time when users have more choice than ever over how and whether their information is used to provide them with relevant advertising, a recent story in The Wall Street Journal (“Taming the Spies of Web Advertising,” August 8, 2013, subscription required) borders on the absurd.

The White House and Federal Trade Commission have praised the online advertising industry’s self-regulatory model for its robustness and transparency. Web users see the Advertising Option  icon more than a trillion times every month; the program offers cookie-hardening protectors to prevent accidental deletion of opt-out cookies, it has expanded internationally to 30 countries, and just last month the program was expanded to cover mobile and in-app interest-based ads. Simply stated: We deliver transparency, choice and privacy protections, while others seek to make headlines, leave legacies or consolidate power.

The DAA Consumer Choices program – which works with any browser – also protects users’ choices with two independent enforcement mechanisms,...

Interest-based ads – which largely rely on Web-browsing data to establish their relevance with an individual computer or mobile device user – have been “proving” themselves to advertisers and consumers in study after study in recent years.

Going back to 2010, in a McKinsey study conducted for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe – which incorporated a review of digital services financed by all types of online advertising in France, Germany, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States – a “consumer surplus” is well documented.   Such a surplus shows that households garner close to 40 Euros a month (US$55) in value from ad-financed Internet services. (This is value that would not be achieved were advertising not present to enable it.)

Since this study was published, more recent research also has confirmed the consumer surplus – and our own Digital Advertising Alliance-commissioned Zogby poll from April also shows consumer pragmatism and understanding of how digital advertising finances content that most Internet users value.

Additional research also shows:

• Based on proprietary data provided by twelve major advertising networks, behaviorally-...