• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 5, 2010

To discourage federal intervention, leading marketing organizations are preparing to roll out a new system designed to make it easier for consumers to understand and opt out of online data collection used to target behavioral advertising.

The self-regulatory initiative is from the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), comprising the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The system centers on an Advertising Option Icon. Participating advertisers and networks will place the icon in or near online ads that have been targeted to a user based on the individual's past Web-browsing history. When a user clicks on the logo, he or she will link to a clearly worded disclosure statement about the advertiser's behavioral data collection/usage practices and an "easy-to-use" opt-out options area, according to the DAA.

To show the icon, the advertiser's practices must be in line with "The Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising" released by the DAA in July 2009.

These spell out seven principles that go beyond individual companies' privacy policies, including: providing consumers with clear choices about the data collected/used for online behavioral advertising; appropriate data security (including data retention limits); limits on the collection of specified sensitive data (such as data on children under 13 using child-oriented sites, and some types of health and financial data, if attributable to a specific individual); commitment to educating consumers and other businesses about behavioral advertising and the Principles; and adherence to accountability procedures.

The system -- expected to launch later this fall -- is in response to growing pressure from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to provide consumers with transparency about behavioral data collection and opt-out capabilities.

Participation will be mandatory for members of DMA and the Network Advertising Initiative, a group of advertising networks and analytics firms that already offers consumers behavioral advertising education and provides links to opt-out options on its site. The Advertising Option Icon system is designed to make the opt-out process more streamlined for consumers.

Starting next year, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and DMA will be responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance by participating advertisers and for consumer complaint resolution.

While participation is not mandatory for members of the other associations in the DAA, it expects widespread participation among both member and non-member advertiser companies, says Dan Jaffe, EVP, government relations for ANA.

"The hope is that if Congress sees that there is widespread adoption of a solution that works for consumers, we will avoid imposition of a more restrictive system that could severely undermine the value of the Net for advertising purposes," says Jaffe. "After all, advertising supports much of the content available to consumers on the Web," and its effectiveness and usefulness for consumers depends on being able to target, he adds.

To drive maximum advertiser participation, the associations will sponsor a series of Webinars and promote the program during committee meetings and events, including the ANA's annual conference in mid-October. They will also conduct a national consumer education campaign.

Advertisers can learn about the principles and sign up for the program on AboutAds.info, the same site where opt-out tools for consumers will reside.