Chinese electronics brand LeEco’s $2 billion acquisition of American smart TV manufacturer Vizio on Tuesday divorced its TV software and hardware operations from its data business. Although LeEco billed the deal as a move to drive more retail distribution opportunities for its electronics in the US, AdExchanger sources suggest the separation may be due to […]
Congress is starting to pay attention to ad fraud – and it’s looking to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for answers. To be precise, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) drafted a letter to the FTC on Monday calling for the commission to take a closer look at the negative economic impact of digital […]
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) on Tuesday issued an impassioned rejection of the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) proposed change to online privacy and data security regulations. Wednesday is the final day of the public comment period before the FCC deliberates on the policy, which would force marketers to ask for permission to track consumers’ […]
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, […]
Companies like Google and Facebook arguably have access to far more consumer data than Internet service providers. So why does the Federal Communications Commission call out the broadband guys in its privacy proposal? The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law addressed that question at a hearing on Wednesday. The meeting was to discuss […]
Commissioner Julie Brill will resign her post on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at the end of this month. On April 1, she will join the Hogan Lovells law firm as a partner and co-director of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. “This is five months earlier than when my commission is actually up, so not […]
Ad blocking might be marketers’ current headache, but FTC Commissioner Julie Brill believes it’s up to the advertising industry to alleviate that pain. At AdExchanger’s Industry Preview event in New York on Thursday, she called on the audience of vendors, agencies and marketers to create “usable tools” so consumers can deal with their privacy concerns. […]
The so-called privacy paradox was a big topic of discussion at the Federal Trade Commission’s first PrivacyCon. The event, held Thursday in Washington, DC, brought together around 20 privacy and data researchers who presented their work on consumer privacy and security issues in the commercial sector to an audience of technologists, policymakers and regulators. “There […]
When it comes to cross-device, consumers and ad tech vendors speak very different languages. Consumers use words like “non-court ordered surveillance” and “insidious invasion of privacy,” while vendors and ad industry trade groups refer to “innovation in ad tech,” driving “the Internet economic engine” and delivering a “seamless digital experience.” There’s clearly a disconnect. In […]
Advertisers, ad tech companies and publishers pay heed: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an enforcement policy Tuesday that outlines which forms of native advertising it deems acceptable and which it deems deceptive. A key thread in the guidelines is that the user needs to know if content is an ad before she clicks and/or consumes content. […]
Standard notice and choice aren’t going to cut it when it comes to the IoT. “As the Internet of Things ecosystem grows and more devices are connected to the Internet, you might not even know that they are,” said Pedro Pavón, Oracle’s senior corporate counsel, speaking at a two-day International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) […]
Concoct an unclear or purposefully bewildering privacy policy with a wonky opt-out mechanism and you might have the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) breathing down your neck. “Many companies are providing opt-outs and they need to be careful about what they’re saying and what it means to opt out,” said Maneesha Mithal, associate director for the […]
If policymakers, academics, privacy researchers and technologists have trouble making sense of the cross-device landscape, what chance does the average consumer have? Even the tech-savvy crowd that gathered in Washington, DC, for the cross-device workshop hosted by the Federal Trade Commission on Monday admitted they don’t always have their finger on the pulse, try as […]
Since the beginning of the year, the Financial Times has been selling time-based ads, where the advertiser pays only for ads that have spent five seconds in view. It charges based on cost per hour (CPH). The Times decided to charge for an ad after five seconds because data from its viewability provider, Chartbeat, showed […]
Wyndham Hotels has lost a motion to dismiss an FTC case alleging the hotel chain exposed consumer personal data to potential theft. While the case, which will be sent back to a federal trial court following Monday’s ruling by a three-judge appeals panel, doesn’t directly affect advertisers, it affirms the FTC’s power to penalize companies […]
Beyond the morass of fraud and viewability hides another tripwire for advertisers: government regulation. That’s why UK-based credit card issuer Barclaycard is getting proactive about compliance. As a company that’s smaller than the competition and still making inroads in the US market, Barclaycard is particularly risk averse when it comes to regulatory issues. To that […]
Earlier this week, Mary Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director of advertising practices, suggested to attendees at AdExchanger’s Clean Ads I/O conference that publishers could be held responsible for native ads deemed misleading that run on their properties. Read the original story by AdExchanger’s Sarah Sluis. Readers interested in her comments can now check out the above […]
Publishers taking the role of an ad agency by creating content for marketers should make sure they’re not creating misleading native advertising: The Federal Trade Commission will hold publishers responsible. “For us, the concern is whether consumers recognize what they’re seeing is advertising or not,” Mary Engle, the FTC’s associate director of advertising practices, told […]
As the Internet of Things ramps up, the Federal Trade Commission isn’t far behind. In a report issued Tuesday, the FTC set out a series of privacy recommendations leveled at the IoT device-making community, including best practices on data collection, usage and storage. [Download the report.] Regulators and agencies are most concerned about the ubiquitous […]
Targeted ads are here to stay. But so is a consumer’s right to privacy. “The FTC recognizes that targeted advertising benefits consumers,” said the FTC’s director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Jessica Rich, at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Wednesday. “The business model clearly benefits consumers and we have no interest in jeopardizing it.” While […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to know what marketers are doing with segmentation profiles like “urban scrambler” and “ethnic second city struggler.” The potential for advertising segmentation to exacerbate inequality was a central topic at Monday’s FTC workshop, “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” The Washington, D.C., event included representatives from advocacy groups […]
A few weeks ago, Experian Marketing Services formally merged its Consumer Insights division with its Targeting division. The former, built from Simmons Market Research (providing brand and media outlet profiles) and Hitwise (providing competitive online analytics), is the intelligence arm; the latter is the execution arm. “Imagine seeing not just where ESPN.com traffic comes from […]
Questions lingered after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) presented to the data marketing space a 100-plus-page push for greater transparency Tuesday. The FTC’s manifesto, “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability,” sparked debate about what a data broker is and the potential pitfalls for a proposed centralized portal through which consumers can control the […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) welcomed direct marketers and data companies back from the holiday weekend with a 100-plus page report (called “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability”) and a recommendation that Congress enact legislation to ensure industry transparency and customer control over how their data is used. The report singled out nine […]
The Federal Trade Commission has officially updated Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) with new restrictions that go into effect today. The changes include a ban on collecting location data from site owners and app developers with properties aimed at children. Since 2000, COPPA has required website operators whose sites are directed at users younger […]
In a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee, Chairman John “Jay” Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) accused the ad industry of dragging its feet on the creation of specs for a Do Not Track browser option. “A commitment was made to honor Do Not Track requests from consumers that has not yet been followed through,” Rockefeller said […]
Jon Leibowitz, the Federal Trade Commission Chairman who aggressively pushed for more checks on the digital ad sector, will step down this month. Leibowitz was assiduous in his pursuit of what he saw as overstepping by companies engaged in consumer data collection. His language could be inflammatory, as when he said in 2009 that “a […]
Yesterday we covered a Federal Trade Commission settlement with Epic Media Group over allegations of “history sniffing,” and pointed out that the company had many things in common with a new ad company called Kinetic Social. Those similarities include employees, executives, and website copy. Today Kinetic reached out to AdExchanger to address its supposed connection […]
The Federal Trade Commission has settled “history sniffing” allegations with defunct online ad network Epic Marketplace Inc., whose parent company was Epic Media Group LLC. The agreement bans Epic from using the practice and requires it to destroy all data collected by that means. The FTC’s announcement makes no mention of Kinetic Social, a company […]
Business and consumer privacy interests are flinging letters at the Federal Trade Commission, decrying what they see as shortcomings in the Worldwide Web Consortum’s (W3C) process for setting the browser tech specs for Do-Not-Track. In recent weeks the agency has received a letter from Republican lawmakers criticizing the standards making process and the FTC’s role […]
