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The implications of the new ecosystemwide self-regulatory principles are that negotiations, insertion orders, contracts, etc., are more frictionless. These principles also promise consumers more prominent and more consistent notice and choice.
At the time of this writing, working groups at the IAB and NAI (who applauded the release of the principles) are developing standards for how to implement the "enhanced notice" and other features of the principles. Meanwhile, the DMA and BBB are working on enforcement regimes that are expected to be implemented in early 2010.
What are some of the things we might expect to see from these implementation efforts? Some of the enhanced notice working groups are beginning to develop protocols for in-context notice—that is notice in or around the advertisement. These groups are making progress on how this would interact with the ad itself as an overlay, as well as how best to work with publishers who are interested in supporting enhanced notice.
To complement these efforts, there are folks working on what notice should look like when it is not part of a privacy policy. Some have demonstrated concepts such as having an "Advertising Policy" on their Web sites, and other ideas are being generated.
It is too early to tell how the implementation of these self- regulatory principles will manifest themselves. But it is encouraging that the conversations are occurring and continue to move forward at a brisk pace.
This briskness suggests to me the vast scale of unanimity throughout the ecosystem to support this self-regulatory effort. These cross-industry principles were released within five months of the FTC's views, so the pace of change also underscores the two key benefits of self-regulation in an infant-and-still-evolving medium: speed and flexibility.
Couple the speed and flexible approach of the principles with the awe-inspiring feat of bringing virtually the entire ecosystem under one common set of rules and you get something that is, well … huge!
Lou Mastria, CIPP, is chief privacy officer and vice president of public affairs at NextAction Corp., a Westminster, Colo.-based provider of cooperative data solutions. He can be reached at (908) 363-0983, or by e-mail at lou.mastria@nextaction.net.
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