DAA Boosts Consumer Control Tools For Mobile Ads

The Digital Advertising Alliance is launching two new mobile broadband tools to help consumers identify and, if they choose, opt out of behavioral online advertising by participating companies.

One is AppChoices, available on Google PlayTM, Apple App StoreSM, and Amazon Store, and the other a mobile-optimized Consumer Choice Page.

"This evolution in the DAA's choice platforms adapts consumer-friendly, independently enforceable privacy controls to the fast-growing mobile medium," said DAA in announcing the new mobile tools.

The mobile optimized version of Consumer Choice Page will help consumers use the DAA self-regulatory program for online behavioral advertising, which allows them to identify what companies have put browser cookies on their computers to serve targeted ads based on their surfing history. It then allows users to opt out of some or all of that data collection, according to the site.

AppChoices is described as "an easy-to-use interface to allow users to set their preferences for data collection and use across apps for interest-based advertising and other applicable uses."

"Our new mobile choice tools deliver the same reliable, independently enforced, privacy control experience where consumers and brands engage, both across the Internet and on the go," said DAA executive director Lou Mastria.

DAA and other ad groups have argued that self-regulation is working and that the government does not need to legislate privacy protections or mandate opt-in data collection regimes.

"These new tools from DAA show our industry's dedication to transparency and self-regulation," said American Advertising Federation president James Edmund Datri. "This commitment at both the national and local grassroots levels – backed by robust enforcement mechanisms – represents an ever-growing need for consumer control in the digital world."

The digital ad self-regulation initiative was launched in 2010 by DAA with an assist from the Better Business Bureau. DAA is a consortium of major ad associations including the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, American Advertising Federation, the Direct Marketing Association, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Network Advertising Initiative.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.