Launch Partners Include: 33Across, Bizo, BlueKai, Demdex, eXelate, Lotame, SafeCount, and Turn
Program’s Technology will Enhance Consumers’ Transparency into and Control over their Online Data
NEW YORK – The Better Advertising Project, Inc. (Better Advertising) announced an unprecedented partnership toward launching a program that extends consumer notice and choice deep beyond the browser to companies collecting anonymous behavioral information online. The Open Data Partnership (ODP) will provide consumers with full transparency into this data and enable them to edit their information or opt out completely from any participating company’s cookie. Consumers will be able to gain access to and edit their information directly from an ad impression or publisher site that uses Better Advertising’s Assurance Platform – already in wide use by leading advertisers, agencies, networks and publishers – rather than needing to visit each company’s site individually.
The announcement was first covered in the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704377004575650802136721966.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Companies initially participating in the partnership include: 33Across, Bizo, BlueKai, Demdex, eXelate, Lotame, SafeCount and Turn. None of these companies sells, distributes, or otherwise traffics in personally identifiable information (PII), and no PII will be accessible as part of the program. In accordance with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (the Principles) announced by the Digital Advertising Alliance in July, 2009, participating companies have agreed to integrate their information into the Better Advertising notice experience, enabling Better Advertising to provide a single, easy-to-use portal for consumers across all participating companies.
“Better Advertising’s Open Data Partnership is exactly the kind of initiative that will enable us to remain self-regulated as an industry,” said Mike Zaneis, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). “The more transparency we can provide consumers that enables them to retain control over their own data, the more trusted our ecosystem becomes – to the benefit of everyone.”
“As the world’s largest auction marketplace for audience data and pioneer of consumer transparency tools such as the BlueKai Registry, we are staunch supporters of preserving consumer privacy and happy to participate in the Open Data Partnership,” said Omar Tawakol, BlueKai CEO. “Ensuring consumer choice and visibility continues to be a core tenet of our business and we fully support Better Advertising’s initiative to give web users the ability to update their privacy preferences in one place.”
Open Data Partnership companies will provide Better Advertising with access to information on what they collect and maintain about how each unique consumer browser is identified within their systems. This will include whether or not an active targeting or opt-out cookie is present on that particular web browser, and what information – if any – has been collected. Better Advertising will make this data available to consumers through its industry-leading Assurance Platform, which is the first and currently only platform endorsed by the Digital Advertising Alliance as a standard method for providing evidence of compliance with the Principles. Better Advertising, however, will not collect, hold or use any of this data.
“What we at Lotame and other companies in our space do with regard to data collection is so misunderstood, and is far more benign than some reports would have consumers think,” said Andy Monfried, Lotame CEO. “We’re happy to do all we can as a company to engender the kind of transparency that the Open Data Partnership provides toward enabling consumers not only to better understand, but also to have complete control of their online data. And we fully support both Better Advertising and the Principles.”
“Since introducing the first Data Exchange, we’ve always provided consumers with clear choice and control,” said Meir Zohar, the CEO and founder of eXelate. “We’ve been at the vanguard of this segment and built a sustainable business with dozens of trusted partners, all without compromising user privacy in any way. So, we regard our participation in the Open Data Partnership as a natural step and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
Better Advertising is the first Approved Provider of compliance services for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (Principles) of the Digital Advertising Alliance. This includes the ability to deliver the Advertising Option (or Forward I) icon on behalf of companies who are participating in the self-regulatory program. The company’s Assurance Platform is operating at scale, delivering notice with billions of advertising impressions across the internet for leading brands.
“We’re proud to be working with Better Advertising and the other companies in the Open Data Partnership program. This program follows our privacy centric-approach with all of our clients and is a natural extension of our own initiative, www.donottarget.com,” said Randy Nicolau, CEO of Demdex. “The audience data market is complicated enough for those of us participating in it. I think it’s all too easy for people in our business to lose sight of what’s at stake for consumers who obviously deserve a simplified process controlling their data.”
“Better Advertising’s Open Data Partnership effort is a tremendous step in the right direction for the industry,” said Stuart P. Ingis, Counsel to the DAA and a Partner at Venable, LLP in Washington, who led the crafting of the Self-Regulatory Principles. “To consumers, meaningful self-regulation will require this kind of transparency, which complements the education program that the industry has undertaken.”
“As a leading data-driven advertising platform, Turn takes privacy protection very seriously and is committed to keeping consumers in complete control of their personal data,” said Xuhui Shao, Chief Technology Officer at Turn. “Better Advertising’s initiative encourages all players in the ecosystem to provide the highest level of transparency, adhere to stringent self regulation to address consumer anxiety and foster trust in digital advertising channels.”
“Joining the Open Data Partnership supports the tenets that Bizo was built on: transparency, targeting and helping publishers and marketers thrive online,” said Russell Glass CEO of Bizo. “In the B2B world, marketers need to know that the companies they work with are serious about online privacy and transparency. Initiatives like this are the best way to ensure the sustainability of our industry for the long run.”
“We salute our Open Data Partners for collaborating with us to empower the consumer and adhering to best practices in the online behavioral advertising ecosystem,” said Scott Meyer, CEO and founder of Better Advertising. “We look forward to working cooperatively with these and other companies to deliver on the promise of the Open Data Partnership as well as on full industry implementation of the Self-Regulatory Principles.”
About Better Advertising
Selected by the Digital Advertising Alliance to power its interest-based advertising self-regulatory program, Better Advertising enables a more trusted environment for everyone in the online ecosystem. It gives businesses an easy, standard way of providing evidence of compliance with industry guidelines, and consumers more transparency into, and control over how their information is used online. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in IBA with confidence and generate better advertising results. For more information, please visit: www.betteradvertising.com.
Notes on the DAA and the Industry Self-Regulatory Program
Launched by the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations: the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), with support from the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), and he Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising responds to the Federal Trade Commission’s call for more robust and effective self-regulation of online behavioral advertising practices that would foster transparency, knowledge and choice for consumers. The Program promotes the use of the “Advertising Option Icon” and accompanying language, to be displayed where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. The Advertising Option Icon indicates a company’s use of online behavioral advertising and adherence to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising, guiding the Program. More information about the DAA and its member associations is available at: http://www.aboutads.info/
