After around a year of avoiding the spotlight, Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent nearly four hours fielding a grab bag of questions from members of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, discussing everything from the scope of Google’s data collection practices to alleged political bias in search results. The problem, as is often the case […]
There’s no point passing a comprehensive federal privacy legislation if the main enforcement agency doesn’t have the means to hold feet to the fire. On Tuesday, all five commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection in Washington, D.C., to make an appeal for more resources. “Section 5 is […]
Representatives from nine governments gathered in London on Tuesday with pointed questions for Mark Zuckerberg about fake news, misinformation, hate speech, election interference, privacy and data collection. Thing is, Zuckerberg wasn’t there, having declined repeated invitations to testify before the UK’s Digital Culture, Media and Sports Committee. The parliamentarians from Britain, Canada, France, Ireland, Belgium, […]
Facebook may have to roll out a “sorry” button. In the meantime, there’s Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s global head of marketing solutions. After revelations last week about questionable data-sharing practices capped off by a large data breach, Everson was invited to kick off Advertising Week in New York City on Monday and address Facebook’s most recent […]
Far from Silicon Valley, in a lecture hall at George Washington University Law School on an overcast day in Washington, DC, the clouds are gathering for big tech. On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission held the first in a series of public hearings running from now through November focused on a wide range of consumer […]
Crimson Hexagon is back in business on Facebook and Instagram – mostly. The social analytics platform, which uses AI to analyze public data across social networks, said Friday that most of its customers have had their access restored to both Facebook and Instagram data since the end of last week. The process was far swifter for […]
The sweeping California privacy law, AB 375, that was rushed onto Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for his 11th-hour signature last week won’t go into effect until 2020. The new law gives consumers a host of new rights, including the ability to compel companies to share what data has been collected about them, the right to […]
While both the California Consumer Privacy Act and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation address the collection of personal information by businesses, they are actually quite different. Here’s where they diverge and why the advertising trade orgs are lobbying like bandits to block the California act’s passage. The IAB, DMA, ANA, 4As and NAI decried the […]
Apple is reportedly headed once more into the fray with the launch of a contextual ad network that could include inventory from Pinterest, Snap and a collective of other apps in the App Store. The move, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, may seem strange in light of macro events like Facebook’s data scandal […]
May 25 is here and let’s pretend that companies up and down the digital supply chain are ready for the General Data Protection Regulation enforcement deadline. Good. Now it’s time to start fretting about ePrivacy. Many in the advertising industry have treated ePrivacy almost as an afterthought in the frenzied lead-up to the GDPR enforcement […]
Anyone hoping for an intense grilling of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his testimony Tuesday before European politicians in Brussels can keep on waiting. Zuckerberg trotted out familiar talking points and was sheltered from the intensity and awkward eye contact of real interrogation by a strange format, in which members of the EU Parliament asked […]
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.” A contrite yet confident Mark Zuckerberg, wearing a suit rather than his usual gray T-shirt and jeans, testified Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees in Washington, […]
With Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation taking effect May 25, Facebook must alter some of its business practices regardless of any fallout due to the Cambridge Analytica debacle. The Cambridge Analytica revelations merely behoove Facebook to move faster and fix things in light of macro privacy changes hitting the EU. The most recent example is […]
The May deadline to comply with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is swiftly approaching, and ad tech and security startups are forming a new industry: privacy tech. Companies like PageFair, Evidon, Prifender, Tealium and Segment hope to capitalize with GDPR compliance solutions for brands, publishers and even other ad tech vendors. The International Association […]
The digital media supply chain is about to get a whole lot smaller thanks to Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The privacy legislation, which takes effect in May, dictates that data controllers could be held responsible for data privacy missteps made by their third-party partners. Marketers and publishers are therefore highly incentivized to run […]
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a looming reality set to take effect on May 25, 2018 – and the digital advertising industry is just starting to get woke. But misconceptions about the regulation are pervasive. And despite the substantial amount of work that companies need to do in order to prepare for and […]
Stick a fork in the Federal Communication Commission’s Obama-era privacy rules. As promised, President Trump signed a bill Monday to repeal the ISP privacy regulation passed last year under former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The repeal follows Republican-led Senate and House votes to kill the regs in late March. The rules would have required broadband […]
The Republican-led House voted Tuesday to kill the Federal Communication Commission’s ISP privacy rules. All it needs now is the president’s signature, and that is all but assured. The White House issued a statement earlier in the day to say that President Trump strongly supports repealing the rules. Ad trade orgs rejoice. The House’s decision […]
The other shoe has dropped: Newly minted Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai on Friday moved to block the implementation of the ISP privacy rules passed under former Commissioner Tom Wheeler. Pai was acting on a request by trade groups to stay the rule rollout, which was scheduled to take effect March 2. “All […]
The ad tech ecosystem keeps Jessica Rich up at night. “The current models just aren’t working,” said Rich, who until recently sat on the front lines of advertising regulation and enforcement as director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Rich resigned her post last week after a 26-year career at the commission […]
There’s a new top cop on the advertising regulation beat. Attorney Thomas Pahl will fill Jessica Rich’s shoes as acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Acting FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen named Pahl to his new post on Wednesday, the day after it was announced Rich would be stepping down. Pahl […]
The sea change at the Federal Trade Commission continues. On Tuesday, Jessica Rich, the FTC’s director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, exited the commission after 26 years of service. Rich led the bureau since 2013, when she was appointed by then-FTC Chair Edith Ramirez. The announcement comes on the heels of Ramirez’s planned departure […]
Maureen Ohlhausen is taking the reins as acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Ohlhausen has been vocal about the need for less regulation and fewer restrictions around data collection, which dovetails with the digital ad industry’s point of view on the matter. Ohlhausen, who’s been been with the FTC since 1997 and has served […]
The agenda at this year’s PrivacyCon read like the Federal Trade Commission’s to-do list. Nearly 20 researchers from around the country converged on Washington, DC, Friday to dig into the privacy implications of the Internet of Things and big data, mobile privacy, consumer privacy expectations, online behavioral advertising, information security, the dangers of cross-app tracking […]
When Maneesha Mithal first joined the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in 1999 – eight years before the first iPhone came out – the big issues of the day were how to regulate ecommerce and handle spam. The threat vectors have changed. The FTC’s top three priorities in 2017 will be Internet of Things […]
As the clock ticks down to President-elect Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the future of regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission is uncertain. But one thing is clear: Enforcement will continue. “The overwhelming majority of the work we do is bipartisan,” Travis LeBlanc, the FCC’s enforcement bureau chief, said last week at an International Association […]
The Federal Trade Commission is watching smart TVs. An FTC workshop on Wednesday in Washington, DC, laid out consumer privacy concerns around smart-TV tracking and sought to clarify how the ad industry is using the data that’s being collected. “Consumers expect some level of data collection when they use their computer,” said Jessica Rich, director […]
All the notice in the world doesn’t mean anything if the consumer doesn’t see it. It’s not yet apparent what the Federal Communications Commission’s recently passed privacy regulations will look like in practice. Internet service providers (ISPs) could potentially phone in their compliance to the newly imposed strictures with an updated user agreement or cleverly […]
“We generally may share information we collect on the site with certain service providers, some of whom may use the information for their own purposes as necessary.” That’s a nearly verbatim quote from a real privacy policy. (Emphases added.) “Vagueness impacts the consumer’s understanding of risk and their willingness to share information,” said Fordham University […]
InMobi was the first mobile ad network to get whipped by the Federal Trade Commission under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for tracking geolocation without parental consent – and it’s not going to be the last. “What happened here is a wake-up call for regulators,” said Allison Fitzpatrick, a partner in the advertising, […]
