Ad Groups Release Guidance for Mobile Ad Data

The Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) released new mobile privacy standards that call for more transparency and choice when mobile websites, apps and ad platforms use cross site data to target ads. The DAA’s long awaited announcement came on the heels of FTC Commissioner, Julie Brill’s, push for stronger privacy legislation at the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference in Washington. The Commissioner’s “Reclaim Your Name” campaign was announced last month while breaking news of the U.S. government’s surveillance program, PRISM, was shining the light on the lack of data privacy in general. The guidance builds on the alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (2009) and Multi-Site Data (2011). Last week’s announcement of the self-regulatory guidelines also coincided an announcement from the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). NAI, a member of the DAA with its own self-regulatory rules and enforcement program, released its own version of privacy rules that complement the DAA’s long awaited mobile data privacy code. In addition, the rules set protections for sensitive data collection and prevent the use of advertising data for certain discriminatory purposes.