Update on the 2020 NAI Code

After an eventful 2019, The NAI is preparing for a momentous twentieth anniversary year in 2020. The thoroughly revised 2020 NAI Code of Conduct will go into effect in ten days, on January 1st, 2020, placing a number of new requirements in the areas of Tailored Advertising and Ad Delivery and Reporting on NAI members. This new Code incorporates the Viewed Advertising Guidance, modernizes terminology, extends consumer opt-in requirements for the use of certain types of data (including Sensor Information and Precise Location Information) to Ad Delivery and Reporting, introduces political transparency requirements, and expands coverage to information collected offline if it is used to target digital advertising across websites, apps, or on digital television screens.

NAI staff have been working with member companies throughout the year to educate them about these new requirements, and we have been helping member companies prepare for the changes they will need to make in order to remain in compliance with the Code in 2020. This includes a number of educational webinars and one-on-one calls with each member company during the 2019 NAI compliance review.

As the deadline to the enforcement date of these new requirements approaches, and after speaking with all member companies, the NAI is allowing for additional time for members to come into compliance with two new obligations under the new Code, due the industry-wide changes which will be necessary for material compliance with those two requirements.

First, the 2020 Code requires member companies engaged in Audience-Matched Advertising to provide a PII-based opt out from these activities for users on the NAI industry page. The technical development of, and integration with, this new tool have been delayed due to the amount of resources that member companies are devoting to compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by January 1, 2020. The NAI and its members will work during the first half of 2020 to ensure that all members engaged in Audience-Matched Advertising are fully integrated with the NAI’s PII-based opt-out tool by July 1, 2020, and enforcement actions for non-compliance are set to begin after that date.

Second, the 2020 Code raises the bar on what steps are necessary for NAI members to rely on reasonable assurances from partners that consumers have expressed informed Opt-In Consent to Tailored Advertising and Ad Delivery and Reporting uses of sensitive data such as Precise Location Information. One of these requirements is for users to be presented with just-in-time notice while providing consent for digital advertising uses of their location data. Because platform controls provided by device manufacturers do not always allow for the provision of such notice, NAI members must take technical and contractual steps to ensure that this notice can be presented to users by the mobile applications that collect location data. NAI staff and members will work to operationalize these changes in the mobile digital advertising ecosystem during the first half of the year, with the goal of beginning enforcement also on July 1, 2020.

All other requirements in the 2020 NAI Code will be enforced beginning on January 1, 2020 thanks to the hard work by NAI member companies to prepare for these new obligations during the past year, even as they were also preparing for new requirements under CCPA.