Search results matching tag 'Regulatory'

A is for Advergame; B is for Banner...

2175094 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:00 GMT

Children today are growing up in a digital society. They will never know what it was like living in a world without the internet or mobile devices. They are digital savvy and their distinction between offline and online worlds increasingly blurs by the day. But being media savvy is not the same as being media literate.

Leading child psychologist Professor Tanya Byron, in her report to the UK Government “Safer Children in a Digital World”, concluded: “We must empower our children to take ownership of their safe and responsible digital behaviour.” Her report talked of the importance of information and education for children and parents. Industry is well placed to deliver this and today sees the launch of a national programme – Digital Adwise - to raise children’s awareness of digital advertising. The not-for-profit programme, aimed at 6-11 year olds, comprises a free set of lessons allowing kids to critically evaluate digital advertising in a fun way - for example there are some interactive activities such as “tag the ad” and "ad maker" – and there’s helpful support information for teachers, such as examples from the IAB’s Creative Showcase. The initiative builds upon the successful MediaSmart programme about television, radio and print advertising, now being used by 38% of UK primary schools. The new materials will also be available to all primary schools.

At an event in London yesterday evening to mark the launch of the programme, Creative Industries Minister, Sion Simon, spoke of the importance of “topical and cutting edge media literacy that teachers want and children can relate to”. He concluded that the whole advertising industry should get behind the initiative, promote it and ensure its success. The IAB agrees and we should all help to spread the message.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

Education, education, education (part three...and final)

2175094 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I’ve banged the drum in previous weeks about the importance of consumer education about behavioural advertising, and the IAB's recent research has highlighted the need for this.

Today the IAB has published a guide on behavioural advertising specifically for industry, our first step in helping educate the market about this practice (although you’ll be glad to know that this will be my last blog – for now - talking about education). The guide explains how behavioural advertising works, how it differs to other types of targeted advertising on the internet, its benefits to web publishers and advertisers, consumer attitudes as well as online privacy and industry good practice.

The guide – sponsored by technology company Audience Science – hasn’t been written exclusively by the IAB but by the experts themselves, with contributions from the likes of AOL, Guardian, Profero, Post Office, Yahoo!, ValueClick Media and, of course, Audience Science.

It may not make the Amazon bestsellers list (its free after all) but for anyone who wants to know a little more about behavioural advertising, this one’s for you. Enjoy!

Follow IAB on Twitter

Education, education, education (part two)

2175094 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:45:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of informing and educating consumers about the internet. This followed a revamp of the IAB’s website – www.youronlinechoices.co.uk – aimed at helping internet users understand online behavioural advertising, how it works and how to switch it off if they want to. Today the IAB, in partnership with business law firm Olswang, has published new research confirming that consumers need (and want) more information and education about online privacy and the practice of behavioural advertising.

The research confirms that consumers today are far more trusting of the internet as a medium, compared with more than five years ago. People – particularly young people – are more comfortable with sharing their personal information with shopping websites, banks and social networking sites. But there’s no room for complacency: consumers may be more acclimatised to the internet and the role it now plays in our everyday lives but they also want to have it on their owns terms and wish to know more about new digital marketing techniques, such as behavioural advertising.

72% of internet users are – unsurprisingly – unaware about behavioural advertising, how it works and what information is collected and used. However, the research results are particularly enlightening when consumers are provided with the relevant information. For example:

• 81% of internet users do not know the level of control they actually have over behavioural advertising, such as their right to switch it off.
• 74% of internet users are actually more comfortable with behavioural advertising when they are provided with information about what data is collected and used and how it can be controlled.

Behavioural advertising remains a relatively new online practice. As the Government’s Digital Britain report acknowledged it is an important business model to help web publishers convert “creativity into value”. Industry needs to find a balance between making advertising more measurable and effective whilst protecting consumer privacy. It’s a balance that the IAB, its members and the rest of the advertising industry is working to get right and education – as this research very clearly shows – needs to be at the heart of it.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

Education, education, education (part one)

2175094 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:01:00 GMT

It's official: us Brits love shopping online. According to research by price comparison service, Uswitch, 93% of the UK population now shop on the internet (I think that’s 93% of the 2,500 adults they surveyed!). And, as consumers continue to ‘connect’ so advertisers increasingly look to the internet as a platform to get their messages across and sell their wares. The two are mutually beneficial. Some of us just can’t get enough of all this (it’s empowering and addictive). For others the tide of change is uncomfortable and some need help getting connected in the first place (and there’s no one better than digital entrepreneur and Government Digital Inclusion Champion, Martha Lane Fox, to make this happen).

So, it’s important to inform and educate people about the internet. This is not a new message: government, Ofcom and others, including industry, have spearheaded campaigns to help people – particularly parents and children - better understand online and its significant benefits but also the challenges it throws up in our everyday lives. Understanding how to keep safe and secure is lesson number one and many schools build this into their curricula activities as they integrate the use of the internet into children’s learning.

This week the IAB has revamped its consumer website dedicated to explaining behavioural advertising: www.youronlinechoices.co.uk. We launched this site when we published our Good Practice Principles earlier this year to govern the practice. One of the three key commitments is education and many of the businesses involved continually go to great lengths to provide consumers with helpful information. Our website builds on these: providing easy-to-understand information on behavioural advertising, how it works and the role it plays in helping make online content, services and applications available at little or no cost. This is backed up by the other commitments: transparency about what information is collected and used to deliver more relevant advertising as well as the opportunity to opt out or switch it off. So the new website includes a centralised page for consumers to visit to opt out of behavioural advertising by the businesses that are complying with the IAB’s Good Practice Principles. Our future aim is to make this even more user friendly.

The launch of the website marks the point that those businesses that have signed up to the Good Practice Principles and have live commercial UK operations are complying with the commitments. To complement this, each of these businesses’ compliance will be independently verified by auditor ABCe to provide greater assurance in this practice. This is key but its only by explaining clearly what this is all about and how it all works that we can really expect consumers – heavy or light internet users – to accept and understand why we’re taking this approach.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

A BBC licence fee for a digital age?

2175094 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:10:00 GMT

The Government – pioneered by the departing Communications Minister, Lord Carter – today unveiled its final Digital Britain report.

There is welcome acknowledgement of the contribution digital advertising – in particular targeted advertising - will make in helping to monetise online content. The Government also attaches significant importance to self-regulation and education in promoting transparency and protecting internet users’ online privacy, supporting the IAB’s Good Practice Principles for behavioural advertising, as well as www.youronlinechoices.co.uk, the new portal to help educate users. There is also encouraging news in the appointment of Martha Lane-Fox, one of the pioneers of digital commerce, as the Government’s digital inclusion champion.

But all eyes are on two specific proposals contained in the 238 page report which will alter the digital landscape in the years to come:

1. A 50 pence per month levy on all fixed copper and cable lines (but not mobile infrastructure) from 2010 to fund the rollout of next generation broadband. According to Lord Carter that’s £6 per year per household, although low income households would be exempt. The fund would raise between £150-175m a year, allowing next generation rollout to be complete by 2017, a timescale specifically criticised by the Conservative Culture Spokesperson, Jeremy Hunt.

2. Ring-fencing the BBC’s underspend for the so-called Digital Switchover Help Scheme (ie money the BBC receives to help vulnerable people switch to digital TV services - over and above its existing licence fee settlement) to help finance the delivery of regional news, other than that provided by the BBC. This ‘Contained Contestable Element of the Licence Fee’ idea is not the so-called ‘top-slicing (to you and me that’s ‘sharing out’) of the BBC’s licence fee, as has been widely reported in the media.

Significantly, this second proposal fires the starting gun of the licence fee review (due in 2013) and the beginning of a wider discussion about how the BBC’s licence fee should apply (and in what form) in a digital age (eg we don’t pay the licence fee to access the BBC’s website or the iPlayer). The report moots maintaining a ‘Contained Contestable Element’ of the licence fee after 2013 and, in his briefing to industry this afternoon, Carter did not rule out this money being used for (non-BBC) children’s content and programming.

If there is to be a lasting legacy of this report then this is it. The Government has effectively sounded the death knell on the BBC’s licence fee as we know it today and kicked-off the debate about how we fund public service content in a digital age.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

Transparency, choice and education is the way forward for online privacy

2175094 — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:20:00 GMT

A parliamentary body of MPs and Peers – the All Party Parliamentary Group on Communications – is to conduct an inquiry into internet traffic, including behavioural advertising and online privacy. The Group asks whether the Government should intervene over behavioural advertising or whether it should leave it to users, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and websites. The Group also asks whether there is a need for any new initiative to deal with online privacy. The Group has sought ‘written evidence’ from interested parties and will be meeting with key stakeholders in mid-June.

The IAB has submitted a response to the Group specifically addressing these two questions. You can read a copy of our response here. Our response provides the Group with an introduction to behavioural advertising, how it works, how it differs to contextual and demographic online advertising, the different business models and the benefits to internet users, content producers and publishers, and advertisers.

The IAB’s response argues that transparency, choice and education is the way forward for online privacy. Its four key points are:

1. Government intervention over behavioural advertising services is not necessary at this time. The current legal framework is sound and efforts should focus on transparency of what data are used and how and on securing user trust.

2. The parliamentary group should encourage self-regulatory initiatives to address privacy concerns relating behavioural advertising, in particular the IAB’s Good Practice Principles which seek to build greater transparency and user trust.

3. The UK Government should press for amendments to the Council of Europe’s draft Recommendation on ‘Profiling’ that seeks to extend the current EU data protection legal framework in areas such behavioural advertising, so that industry can have legal certainty and recommendations are not damaging to business.

4. The Group should welcome and support ongoing self-regulatory and educational efforts, rather than recommending a new approach or initiative on online privacy.

The IAB will be hoping to provide ‘oral evidence’ to the Group next month. A final report is expected in the autumn.

Follow the IAB on Twitter.

Plumbing, poetry, pirates and…people?

2175094 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:30:00 GMT

Last Friday’s Digital Britain Summit at The British Library was themed as an event to discuss the ‘plumbing’ (ie broadband infrastructure) and ‘poetry’ (ie the content) – this is Lord (Stephen) Carter’s very own analogy. Its importance to the Government was on show for all to witness: four senior government ministers, including the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. He, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Business Secretary Lord (Peter) Mandelson all made key note speeches and the author of the Digital Britain project himself, Lord Carter, was a panelist.

The Prime Minister and his Secretaries of State all prophesised that ‘Digital Britain’ will help the UK out of recession and is vital to our global competitiveness (there was even a hint about state help in areas where the market might not reach). So there was a lot of ‘political’ talk about the roll out of super-fast broadband where the Government has some influence, but little about where government has less influence: the content. And – as Emily Bell rightly outlines in MediaGuardian today – this is where the Government faces a dichotomy: promoting the very innovation that is killing some of the traditional media landscape.

There was a dedicated panel session on the ‘poetry’ led by Anthony Lilley of Magic Lanterns. The ‘twittosphere’ unanimously claimed Lilley’s speech to be the best of the day. He talked of Digital Britain failing to consider the interests of people and participation, the very heart of web 2.0. The panel session – including Johannes Larcher from ad-funded US video streaming services, Hulu, and Lucienne Grainge from Universal Music – thereafter discussed the problems of 'piracy' and its impact upon online content. Its timing was perfect: only minutes earlier Pirate Bay – the aggregator file-sharing site – had been been found guilty in Sweden. There was a lukewarm response to the Government’s idea to tackle this issue (a Digital Rights Agency) and a strong acknowledgement that such an approach must not throttle innovative new approaches – such as Hulu or Spotify – in making music and film legally available online for consumers for little or no cost.

We’re yet to know the full implications of the Pirate Bay decision. Tackling this issue is clearly important to the future of funding content online but it would be a shame if this verdict gave weight and merit to high-handed approaches. It may not achieve what it sets out to do and may deny businesses the opportunities to beat the 'pirates' at their own game. As Anthony Lilley rightly said, it’s important not to forget the people who matter: internet users. They are the drivers of the technology and the services. We may have their interests at heart in rolling out broadband for all, but we also need their interests at heart in populating the ‘plumbing’ with the ‘poetry’. There may even be a business opportunity…

Follow the IAB on Twitter

Digital Britain…kindly brought to you by advertising (part 2)

2175094 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Over the last few months I’ve written a number of blogs about the Digital Britain project, the Government’s blueprint for the UK’s digital economy. This kicked off last November with a blog arguing that the internet will help the UK economy out of its current recession, followed in late January with the first in the series of ‘Digital Britain…kindly brought to you by advertising’ blogs (this is the second!) which highlighted the Government’s underplaying of the role and value of advertising to the digital economy in its interim report. In late February, I talked of the ‘green shoots of opportunity’ and the Government’s failure - in its interim report - to recognise the UK as one of the best places in the world to do ‘digital business’.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently submitted its response to the interim Digital Britain report calling on the Government to:

· Recognise the importance of fostering the advertising market in order to continue attracting investment from pan-European businesses in the UK.

· Acknowledge the importance of new advertising techniques (such as behavioural advertising) in building strong revenue streams for digital media.

· Support a market structure allowing new entrants to easily develop ad-supported business models rather than create high barriers to new entry.

· Clarify the significant body of self-regulation and good practice already in existence and commit to intervene only when it will deliver enhanced outcomes for consumers.

· Acknowledge the value of novel self-regulatory schemes, such as the recently published IAB Good Practice Principles for behavioural advertising, and offer support for these schemes to encourage other players to make similar commitments.

The final Digital Britain report is expected in the summer (although speculation has mounted that it might come earlier - ambitious!). Whilst I acknowledge the importance of Lord Carter’s ‘top five goals’ (universal connectivity, faster broadband, spectrum liberalisation, resolving the online piracy issue and the role of public service broadcasting/publishing in a digital age), we hope that the Government will also examine the wider digital economy (not just infrastructure issues - 11 of the 22 action items in the interim report) as it would surely be a strategic error to create the circumstances for universal broadband connectivity without fully acknowledging the role advertising plays in supporting the vast majority of the content, services and applications delivered to consumers via broadband.

We’ll get a better idea at the Digital Britain summit in London next week (but where are the new media speakers?). Look out for the IAB Twitter feed providing you with the latest!

Follow the IAB on Twitter

Is Google setting the industry standard on privacy?

2175094 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

With the IAB’s Good Practice Principles for behavioural advertising still ‘hot off the press’ (to use an old media term!), Google this week launched its own ‘interest-based advertising’ global product across its AdSense partner sites and YouTube.

Google’s new venture meets the core commitments of notice, choice and education enshrined in the IAB Good Practice Principles (Google is a signatory) and the privacy-enhancing tools in the product will help to build greater consumer trust in more relevant advertising fuelling the “content, products and services available on the internet today”. Specific features will provide internet users with the following:

• Clear information about the collection and use of data for interest-based advertising by clicking a ‘label’ on the advert itself. The IAB’s Good Practice Principles specifically offer this (Guidance Note 1C) as an option to signatories to meet the commitment to provide ‘clear and unambiguous notice to users.’

• A clear choice as to whether the user wants relevant interest-based advertising or not. Google will have a clear ‘opt-out’ option as well as a ‘plug-in’ to download on a user’s web browser in order to maintain that choice in the event that they decide to delete all the cookies on that particular web browser. A clear opt-out for the collection and use of data for behavioural advertising (over and above where consent is required – for example when personal data is collected) is another requirement of the Good Practice Principles (2.1).

• Clear information on the product and the privacy features on the Google privacy channel on YouTube (see also below). This will be linked to the IAB’s new website – www.youronlinechoices.co.uk – as outlined in the Principles (3.2).

• An option on what types of advertising they see by adding or removing ‘interest’ categories using the Ads Preference Manager.

These are welcome steps. All of the signatories to the IAB’s Good Practice Principles have excellent privacy-enhancing tools, but Google’s features will certainly set a precedent for the rest of the industry to follow.

Follow the IAB on Twitter

Privacy is at the heart of the internet's future

2175094 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Protecting personal data and privacy is one of the biggest challenges of the digital era. And, as we all spend more of our lives online, so it’s importance will continue to grow. People are prepared to share more information about themselves and their experiences then we might dare to do in the offline world. People are also prepared to forfeit a little bit of personal data in return for improved and often more personal services. This is not a new thing: loyalty cards have been around for a while now.

The last few weeks have illustrated only too clearly these challenges. Facebook – that social phenomenon with 175 million global users (and growing by 600,000 a day!) – got itself into hot water by claiming ‘ownership’ of its users’ information. Its reputation on privacy looked distinctly jaded. However, its response was magnificent showing the true power of the internet: it is to let its users decide the matter. Yes, Facebook is handing over its policies governing the site to the very people that use and enjoy it. People talk about the internet being a true ‘democratising force’ and here is another great example. Hats off the Mark Zuckerberg and his team!

But what about information that is not personal in that it can’t identify us as individuals, such as web browsing activity? Today we see another giant step forward for user privacy. Leading IAB members – including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL – have signed up to some Good Practice Principles for behavioural advertising. This type of online advertising – currently only hovering around 20% of the online display advertising market (which, in itself, is worth about £600m in terms of adspend) - has huge potential to make advertising far more relevant to our interests, as well as removing the online advertising we might not want. New IAB research has found that 85% of consumers would rather have free internet content with advertising on websites, rather than paying a premium for it. From a business point of view, it also means more effective advertising and a better return for publishers. It all make sense. But what about consumer privacy? First things first, most of the data collected is anonymous in that it can’t identify the individual. Where personal data is collected, UK data protection laws are there to protect consumers.

The guidelines commit providers to three core things:

1.     Provide clear and unambiguous to users about the information they collect and use for behavioural advertising.
2.     Provide users with a choice to decline to receive behavioural advertising.
3.     Provide users with a simple and easy-to-understand information about behavioural advertising.

Supporting the Good Practice Principles is a portal aimed at consumers - www.youronlinechoices.co.uk - helping them to understand how behavioural advertising works, its benefits and how privacy is protected.

If behavioural advertising is to grow upwards from its existing market share, we need the trust of the consumer. They need transparency, choice and education and these underpin the principles launched today. It’s only a start but one that will begin to build trust, provide significant benefits and prevent a potentially compromised online experience. We should welcome it. I'd be very interested in people's feedback and thoughts on this initiative.

Follow the IAB on Twitter