Ad Tech

Congress continues to hold data privacy hearings, including yesterday’s Understanding the Digital Advertising Ecosystem and the Impact of Data Privacy and Competition Policy. The continued debate over adtech practices is reaching a crescendo, making the case for quick action on a comprehensive federal privacy law that can set parameters for how personal data is collected, […]

This morning, Facebook announced that they will begin rolling out new requirements for its “Custom Audiences” targeting tool for advertisers. These updates are a useful step towards creating better user understanding of data flows both on Facebook and in the broader web, and enhancing the accountability of advertisers who use custom marketing lists.

In the world of consumer privacy, including the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile data, and advertising technologies (“Ad Tech”), it can often be difficult to measure real-world impact and conceptualize individual harms and benefits. Fortunately, academic researchers are increasingly focusing on these issues, leading to impressive scholarship from institutions such as the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, UC Berkeley School of Information, and many others, including non-profits and think tanks.

Fordham University’s Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP) just released the study, “Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data,” which examines the practices of data brokers who buy and sell information about students. In the study, the authors describe existing privacy laws, map the commercial marketplace, and describe the challenges of understanding how data about students is collected and used.

The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) released its 2018 Code of Conduct yesterday, consolidating the rules for online and mobile behavioral advertising (interest-based advertising). NAI, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC, is the leading self-regulatory association for digital advertising, with over 100 members and a formalized internal review mechanism.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee (Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law) held a hearing to explore the FCC’s proposed privacy rules regulating Broadband Internet Access Service providers (a subset of Internet Service Providers, or ISPs).

On Monday, the FTC will be holding a workshop on cross-device tracking: how and why the advertising and marketing industries are using emerging technologies to track individual users across platforms and devices. The Future of Privacy Forum is releasing a helpful new report to understanding these technologies, entitled Cross Device: Understanding the State of State […]

On Friday, October 16, the Future of Privacy Forum filed comments with the FTC in advance of the FTC’s Cross Device Workshop on Nov. 16, 2015. Jules Polonetsky and Stacey Gray have prepared a report, Cross-Device: Understanding the State of State Management, based on revisions to FPF’s comments filed with the FTC on October 16th, that aims to describe […]

Facebook wasn’t doing interest based advertising until now?  Huh? Most users of Facebook know that the ads they see are selected by Facebook based on information on their profile, what they have “liked” and interests they have selected.  Most have also noticed that if they visit a web site off Facebook like Zappos, they may […]

Wired quoted FPF’s Jules Polonetsky today in an article on Google’s new program called “Why These Ads.” Google announced the new feature to help consumers understand why they receive certain ads. To see the full article and read Jules’ quotes, please click here.