Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
Either firms involved with behavioral targeting provide clear notice to
Web users about data collection, she continued, "Or it's going to get
done."
I've been keeping up with activity on online privacy regulation at both the FTC and on the Hill and it seems as if the online advertising industry will soon find itself in the same situation that the telemarketing industry did a decade ago.
If you don't remember, the telemarketing industry tried to "self regulate" in the 90's in order to meet the increasing demand at the state level to create "do not call" regulations. Since the industry could not seriously regulate itself the Government stepped in.
The end result was the creation of the Do Not Call registry and regulations that essentially put a major chink in the armor in the business of telemarketing in the USA.
Of course, politicians exempted themselves from the Do Not Call list. Do you think that they will exempt themselves from online regulations? I'll bet on it.
Now, under increasing demand from the public, the internet advertising industry looks like it will be running into the same issue in the same way as the telemarketing industry did a decade ago.
As Kate Kaye reports in today's ClickZ online magazine: "All signs point to official government intervention in the online ad industry."
Congress has been particularly interested in online privacy this summer. Back in July the House had hearings - click here to read my post at that time - titled: What Your Broadband Provider Knows About Your Web Use: Deep Packet Inspection and Communications Laws and Policies.
A big part of the hearings was interest in a company, NebuAd, that sold a product around "deep packet inspection". Since then, the then CEO has left NebuAd and many of their clients have pulled their business.
Now we are hearing that the FTC will more than likely start the process of creating federal regulation around online advertising.
Will industry ever learn? I doubt it.
More interesting for me, however, is if politicians will continue to exempt themselves from privacy laws?
I'm not going to hold my breath.
Here is some of today's article:
As the Federal Trade Commission, Federal legislators and state
agencies heighten interest in how marketers use consumer data, it's
clear the industry is running out of time to establish a self-policing
regime.
"We sounded the clear call for self-regulators," said Eileen
Harrington, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection for
the FTC. That clear call was a set of self-regulatory guidelines put forth by the FTC late last year.
Either firms involved with behavioral targeting provide clear notice to
Web users about data collection, she continued, "Or it's going to get
done." In other words, if the industry doesn't start enforcing
guidelines for behavioral targeting -- including providing clear,
concise and prominent statements about online data collection for
advertising -- the government will step in to ensure enforcement
occurs.
"This is a very juicy policy issue in Washington," said Harrington. The
longer the debate goes on, she suggested, "the more likely policies are
going to develop." Harrington described the back-and-forth between
government and industry entities as "a game of chicken."
Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org