DAA Expands Ad Privacy Controls to Mobile Marketplace

Feb. 26, 2015 – To “bolster both consumer trust and marketplace growth,” the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) yesterday launched two new mobile tools for consumers that provide “transparency and choice over data collection wherever and however they access the Internet,” according to DAA General Counsel Stu Ingis. The new mobile tools – “AppChoices” and the “DAA Consumer Choice Page for Mobile Web” – supplement DAA’s advertising and transparency choice tools for desktop browsers.

“We believe these new tools for transparency and choice will lead to greater trust and engagement between brands and consumers no matter which screen is being used to interact,” Ingis said. DAA Executive Director Lou Mastria stated that DAA’s mobile enhancements “deliver the same reliable, independently enforced, privacy control experience where consumers and brands engage, both across the desktop Internet and on the go. The DAA’s ubiquitous icon signals a set of safeguards to the consumer.”

“The DAA has led the industry in privacy self-regulation, and it’s great to see the program extended to the mobile arena,” said Coalition for Healthcare Communication Executive Director John Kamp. “Given the limited space, mobile provides some of the toughest challenges to enabling consumers to control their privacy preferences, but the DAA is forging ahead regardless,” he noted. “Healthcare can be particularly sensitive, so the Coalition is proud to be part of this effort and urges all industry players to participate.”

Specifically, the AppChoices tool is based on the same self-regulatory principles underlying the DAA’s existing Consumer Choice Page for desktop Web browsers, providing a user-friendly interface that allows users to both set their preferences for data collection and use across apps for interest-based advertising and other applicable uses. The DAA Consumer Choice Page for Mobile Web is an updated, mobile-optimized version of the desktop Consumer Choice Page already used by millions of consumers.

The DAA also announced Feb. 25 that it expects its independent accountability programs – the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association – to begin enforcement under the mobile guidance by late summer.