The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is calling on brand owners to feature the behavioural ad icon on all their online ads – regardless of whether they are targeted on individuals’ surfing history – to keep the regulators at bay.
The call, which means all online ads would have to be redesigned, has been compared to how food firms often display information about what ingredients are not featured in product contents.
US IAB vice president of advertising technology Steve Sullivan said that there were gaps in how companies are implementing the online code mostly due to “lingering confusion about when the ad icon should be included”.
“One of the behavioural advertising principles states that enhanced notice must be served on or close to the ad when the ad is either behaviourally targeted or if data is being collected that could be used for future behavioural targeting,” Sullivan said.
“It is safe to assume that every single one of the parties involved in delivering a campaign (advertiser, ad network, agency or publisher) captures a cookie, an IP address, and a variety of other data points that could be used for future behavioral targeting.
“As such, it’s imperative that any likelihood of data being collected and used, whether before or after an ad is delivered, is clearly communicated to the consumer. So let’s be clear: We should expect to see an advertising option icon on almost every ad, even if that ad is not behaviorally targeted,” he said.
Sullivan said that even if no data is collected in order to deliver ads the interactive icon should still be displayed.
“It’s not enough to include the advertising option icon only when targeting is being used or cookies are being dropped. The ubiquitous presence of the advertising option icon will reassure consumers that, with one click, they can find the information they need about that ad and the industry players who served it, even if the message is, ‘This ad was not targeted’,” Sullivan said.
Despite his call, the icon has already come under fire from EU bosses. Earlier this month, the Article 29 Working Party – a committee of representatives from each of the EU national data protection regulators – claimed the code does not make operators obtain clear enough user permission to track online activity. And, in the summer it branded the icon ‘meaningless’.
However, the IAB has insisted that its code was not designed to be compliant with the EU Directive but that it could be used alongside other methods in order to obtain consent.
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Charlie says: “On the surface this sounds like quite a good idea. After all, food firms have been ‘labelling’ their goods for years. But the problem is this icon seems to have been discredited from the outset. Then again, getting EU data chiefs to agree on a standard for online ads is proving hard enough – let alone bringing the entire online ad industry onboard – is it too much to ask to have a recognised standard in place which would suit the industry, the regulators and consumers?”