2014: The Year Ahead
We’ve already gotten 2014 off to a great start, but the months to come hold many more exciting initiatives. First and foremost, of course, is the upcoming NAI Summit, which will be held on Tuesday, May 20, in Washington, DC. This is your chance to not only gain insight into the goings on at NAI and gain a comprehensive view of the current privacy landscape; it is also your chance to hear from Washington insiders and decision-makers about relevant policy discussions as well as ongoing legislative efforts at the highest levels.
As Do Not Track (DNT) initiatives heat up, we are dedicating additional resources to monitor DNT and have scheduled a 45-minute deep dive into the just-released W3C specification at the Summit. Third parties — exchanges, DMPs, networks, and others — must engage in this debate because it is your business models that are the target of the standard. While others have dropped out of W3C (for good reason), we remain at the table to advocate on behalf of third-party ad tech companies who otherwise would have no voice in the process.
In 2014, we will also be beefing up our initiatives around the use of different technologies to maintain state across websites. Our “Beyond Cookies” working group currently has two efforts underway – a policy document and a technical specification. The NAI Code is technology neutral and our view is that the same principles of notice, choice, transparency, use limitations, data security, and accountability should apply to the collection and use of data for IBA regardless of the technology used.
We hope to circulate a draft policy document at the Summit on May 20th and there will discussions with panelists and audience members alike about how to extend our self-regulatory Code to rapidly evolving technologies and business models. This may include potential changes to the opt-out page to accommodate tracking technologies beyond HTTP cookies. We don’t have all the answers and we’ll be actively soliciting feedback from our members. We want to have policies that are practical, implementable, and scalable — policies that both protect and support consumer privacy and allow third-party ad tech companies to innovate, succeed, and offer the most effective products and services in the digital media space.
On that note, the NAI staff has commenced a review of the NAI Cross-App Mobile Principles that were released last summer. Given the rapid rate of change in the ecosystem, we have already identified some areas in the Code that should be revised now before the Code is enforced in 2015. As we have discussed during our member meetings, our goal is to develop a mobile code that is logical, practical and can be implemented by all of our members. As always, we encourage and welcome your feedback on the NAI Mobile Code. No detail is too small; let us hear from you!
We’ll be discussing all of these issues and more at next month’s Summit. Seating is limited so please register today to be part of a critical discussion about the current state and future of the third-party digital ecosystem. This is also a great opportunity to network with your colleagues from the top companies in our industry. The event ends with a cocktail reception on the rooftop of the tower overlooking the White House. Hope to see you there!
