The Federal Trade Commission is recruiting ad tech experts.
Specifically, the FTC is looking for two people to gather and analyze information on digital advertising markets to inform how the agency and other policymakers think about policy development and enforcement as they consider potential consumer threats.
Usually, the agency relies on a stable of economists and academics when it’s studying a market. But digital advertising and ad tech are … special.
“The digital advertising market is famously opaque, even for advertisers, publishers and other market participants,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told AdExchanger. “Visibility into these quickly evolving market dynamics is critical to fulfilling our consumer protection mission.”
Candidates with a business background and an intimate understanding of real-time bidding, programmatic, display advertising and the digital supply chain need apply.
Applications are due May 18 through the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. The fellowship will last for 12 months with the potential for a second year’s extension.
The fellows will work directly with the Division of Litigation Technology and Analysis within the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, and with the FTC’s Office of Technology, Research and Investigation.
Developing in-house digital advertising expertise is one of the FTC’s top consumer protection priorities this year – which shows the nation’s top privacy regulator is taking serious interest in the ad industry’s inner workings.
“We have brought some important enforcement actions in the past year that raise digital advertising issues,” Smith said, pointing to the FTC’s recent settlements with Facebook and YouTube over privacy violations.
But “the technology is fast moving,” he said, “and we believe that having market expertise in house will help us spot and even anticipate new risks to consumers.
