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The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect May 25, 2018. The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (link is external) (TACD), of which CDD is a member, published a document detailing 10 things that US citizens and companies need-to-know about the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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Press Release
Consumer groups in the U.S. and EU urge Facebook to adopt the General Data Protection Regulation as a global baseline standard
In an open letter to Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckkerberg, members of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue urge the company "to confirm your company’s commitment to global compliance with the GDPR". -
Press Release
Advocates Say Google’s YouTube Violates Federal Children’s Privacy Law
Consumer, privacy and children’s groups file complaint urging FTC to stop most popular kids’ online video service from gathering children’s data
WASHINGTON, DC—April 9, 2018—Today, a coalition of leading U.S. child advocacy, consumer, and privacy groups represented by the Institute for Public Representation filed a complaint (link is external) urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and sanction Google for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in operating YouTube. Google claims that YouTube is only for users 13 and up, despite being the most popular online platform for children, used by 80% of American children ages 6 to 12. The site features many programs designed and promoted for children and Google generates significant profits from kid-targeted advertising. The complaint says the FTC should subject Google to penalties, which could total in the billions of dollars. The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), and 21 other organizations demonstrated in their filing that Google, which owns YouTube, makes substantial profits collecting many types of personal information on kids on YouTube, including geolocation, unique device identifiers, mobile telephone numbers, and persistent identifiers used to recognize a user over time and across different websites or online services. Google collects this information without first providing direct notice to parents and obtaining their consent, and Google uses it to target advertisements to kids across the internet, including across devices. COPPA bars the operator of a website directed to children, or that has knowledge of children using it, from collecting and using such information without obtaining parental consent. CCFC’s Executive Director Josh Golin said, “For years, Google has abdicated its responsibility to kids and families by disingenuously claiming YouTube—a site rife with popular cartoons, nursery rhymes, and toy ads—is not for children under thirteen. Google profits immensely by delivering ads to kids and must comply with COPPA. It’s time for the FTC to hold Google accountable for its illegal data collection and advertising practices.” Child directed channels such as ChuChuTV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs (15.9 million subscribers and over 10 billion channel views) and LittleBabyBum (14.6 million subscribers and over 14 billion channel views) are among the most popular channels on YouTube. Major advertisers pay Google a premium to place their ads in a platform known as “Google Preferred,” which includes a “Parenting and Family” lineup comprised mostly of popular channels targeted to children. “Google has acted duplicitously by falsely claiming in its terms of service that YouTube is only for those who are age 13 or older, while it deliberately lured young people into an ad-filled digital playground,” said Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy. “Just like Facebook, Google has focused its huge resources on generating profits instead of protecting privacy.” Angela J. Campbell, counsel for CCFC and CDD, said: “Given the large number of children affected and the extent of YouTube’s COPPA violations, the FTC needs to impose large civil penalties to show it is serious about protecting children’s privacy online.” James P. Steyer, CEO of Common Sense, said: "Kids have been watching videos on YouTube for years, something the company has known, and profited off of, by targeting content and ads at children under 13. It is time for Google to be completely transparent with all the facts and institute fundamentally responsible new policies moving forward to protect the privacy of kids. We fully expect Google to work closely with advocates and reach out to parents with information about parental controls, content, and collection practices on YouTube so parents can make informed choices about what content they allow their kids to access and how to protect their privacy.” Katie McInnis, policy counsel for Consumers Union, said: “YouTube knows children are watching content on their site, and has created content channels specifically aimed at them, but does not appear to obtain the required parental consent before collecting information about them. Google has the responsibility to be COPPA-compliant and ensure that children can safely watch the programs designed and promoted for kids. These practices present serious concerns that warrant the FTC’s attention.” Groups signing on to the complaint to the FTC along with CDD and CCFC are: Berkeley Media Studies Group; Center for Media Justice; Common Sense; Consumer Action; Consumer Federation of America; Consumer Federation of California; Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports; Consumer Watchdog; Corporate Accountability; Defending the Early Years; Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”); New Dream; Obligation, Inc.; Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; Parents Across America; Parents Television Council; Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; Public Citizen; The Story of Stuff Project; TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Childhood Entertainment); and USPIRG. The complaint was drafted by the Communications & Technology Law Clinic in the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. ### -
Blog
Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Google, the GDPR and Digital Marketers: Will Big Brands and Advertisers Pull the Plug that has Erased Privacy?
A digital “great awakening” has occurred with unprecedented global attention given to the commercial surveillance (link is external) business model at the core of our collective digital experience. Since the earliest days of the commercial Internet in the 1990s, the online medium has been deliberately shaped (link is external) to primarily serve the interests of marketing. Advertisers have poured in many billions of dollars since then to make sure that our platforms, applications and devices all serve the primary need of gathering our information so it could be used for data-driven marketing. Internet industry trade groups have developed the technical standards (link is external) so that data collection is embedded in new services—such as mobile geo-location applications. Marketers developed new technologies, such as programmatic (link is external) advertising, that enabled lightning-fast decisions about individuals based on their data. Leading ad platforms, especially Google and Facebook, fought against privacy legislation for the U.S. Policymakers from both major parties protected them from regulation, including on privacy and antitrust. U.S. companies tried to derail (link is external) the new EU privacy law that starts on May 24—known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—but failed to stop it. Europeans—who understand the threat to personal and political freedom when unaccountable institutions control our information—are now on the privacy front lines. The road to privacy and digital rights for America is likely first to pass through the European (link is external) Union. The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal (and kudos (link is external) to The Observer newspaper for its dogged journalism on all this) is, however, not unique. It is emblematic of the way that digital marketing works every day—all over the world. Huge amounts of our information is scooped (link is external) up, from scores of sources, quickly analyzed, and used to send us more personalized marketing and content. Powerful automated (link is external) applications help marketers identify who we and then engage us at deeper emotional and subconscious (link is external) levels. Facebook, Google and others are continually pushing the boundaries of digital advertising, deploying Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality (link is external), Neuromarketing and other techniques. They are laying the foundation for the “Internet of Things” world that will be soon upon us, where we will be further tracked and targeted wherever we go and whatever we do. But it’s the global “Fortune” type companies that will really decide what happens with the online privacy of people all over the world. Google and Facebook basically work for the P&Gs (link is external), Coca-Cola’s (link is external), Honda’s and Bank America’s—the leading advertisers. It’s the advertisers who are really in charge of the Internet, and they have created (link is external) for their own companies a kind of mirror image (link is external) to what Google and Facebook have helped unleash. Fortune-size companies are now also in the data business, (link is external) collecting information on consumers via all their devices; they have created in-house consumer data mining and targeting services; and they deploy advanced digital marketing techniques to directly reach us. Over the last year, major advertisers have forced Facebook (link is external) and Google (link is external) to become more accountable to their needs and interests—rather than to the public interest. What they call the need for “brand safety” online—assurances their ads are not undermined by being placed to hate speech or other content harmful to their brands—is really about seizing greater control over their own digital futures. They deeply dislike (link is external) the clout that both Google and Facebook have today over the digital advertising system. We are at a critical moment in the brief history of the Internet and digital media. There is greater awareness of what is at stake—including the future of the democratic electoral process—if we don’t develop the regulations and policies that ensure privacy, promote individual autonomy, and place limits on the now-unchecked corporate power of digital marketers. It’s time to expand the focus of the debate about Facebook and Google to include those who have been paying for all of this consumer surveillance—namely advertisers and the advertising industry. They need to be held accountable if we are to see a global digital medium that puts people—not profits—first. -
In a statement issued today, CDD, EPIC and a coalition of consumer groups have called on the Federal Trade Commission to determine whether Facebook violated a 2011 Consent Order (link is external) when it facilitated the transfer of personal data of 50 million Facebook users to the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The groups had repeatedly urged (link is external) the FTC to enforce its own legal judgements. "The FTC's failure to act imperils not only privacy but democracy as well," the groups warned.
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Blog
AT&T, Comcast & Verizon Expand “Big Data” Tracking & Targeting of Consumers
Why the largest ISPs oppose federal and state privacy and digital marketing safeguards
Internet service provider (ISP) giants, which dominant how Americans gain access to broadband Internet, cable TV, streaming video, and other telecommunications services, are aggressively expanding their capabilities to gather and use personal data. Leading ISPs AT&T, Comcast and Verizon are taking full advantage of all information flowing from PC’s, mobile phones, set-top boxes, and other devices. ISP giants are using “Big Data” analytics, artificial intelligence, and an array of cutting-edge technologies to identify who we are, what we do and how best to target us with marketing and advertising. They are also working closely with data brokers to gain access to even more personal information. AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, for example, work with Acxiom’s LiveRamp (link is external) subsidiary to build robust profiles that help them identify us regardless of what devices we may be using at the moment. ISPs envision a future in which we are continuously connected to their vast digital media networks for nearly everything we do. Through their monopolistic control over key broadband, cable TV, and satellite networks, ISPs are able to closely monitor what we do online—including both in and out of home, school or work. Marketers are told by ISPs that they can use their data and networks to “micro-target” an individual on all their “screens,” including for financial, health, retail and even political advertising. They are also positioning themselves to play an important role as our society is further transformed by digital technology, such as with so-called “smart homes,” (link is external) “connected cars,” the Internet of Things (link is external), and high-speed “5G (link is external)” networks. Last year, the Republican majority in Congress and the Trump administration eliminated (link is external) what have been the only federal consumer privacy protections afforded to all Americans—safeguards enacted in October 2016 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required ISPs to engage in responsible data practices. ISPs saw that important FCC data-protection safeguard as a formidable obstacle to their plans to “monetize” consumer data. With Network Neutrality—a critical requirement to ensure an open and democratic Internet—also ended by the same FCC, phone and cable ISPs have vanquished federal protections for fair treatment of consumers online—including with their data. Unless states weigh in with safeguards, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other major ISPs will pose—despite their denials—a major threat to consumer privacy. With ISPs especially touting their prowess to capitalize on a consumer’s location, states have an especially important role to play protecting the public from “hyper-local targeting” and other geo-marketing practices. Here are just some recent developments on ISP consumer data and digital marketing practices. AT&T, according to the Trump administration’s Department of Justice filing (link is external) opposing its acquisition of Time Warner, is “the country’s largest distributor of traditional subscription television; the second largest wireless telephone company, third largest home internet provider; one of the largest providers of landline telephone service; and also the country’s largest Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (MVPD), with more than 25 million subscribers.” Its control over broadband, satellite, and mobile telecommunications services is a key reason why AT&T tells marketers that it has “More Scale, More Targeted, More Screens…advanced TV and multi-screen solutions for your brand.” Last February, trade publication DigiDay leaked AT&T’s “pitch deck (link is external)—highlighting what it called its “digital video advantage.” That advantage includes “the ability to access the hottest content on TV and across platforms; the ability to reach the multi-platform viewing audience in a single buy; premium and non-skippable inventory” (ads a consumer can’t avoid). AT&T’s DirecTV is positioned by the pitch deck as an effective competitor to streaming video services offered by Amazon, Netflix and YouTube. Through several data advertising platform partners, AT&T offers real-time ad targeting of individuals who view streaming video and other online content. The pitch deck breaks down AT&T’s DirecTV audience, in order to help advertisers more effectively reach Hispanics, African Americans and households with children. Its 2017 “Media kit” explained how the company helps advertisers reach individuals on all their devices, giving marketers the ability to “serve ads to the same target audience on TV and digital devices across tens of billions of impressions.” AT&T especially highlights its deep relationship (link is external) with consumer data providers, including Equifax, Experian, Crossix, Neustar, and Nielsen Catalina. These allies help AT&T target its subscribers with ads promoting loans and other financial services. AT&T Adworks has recently opened (link is external) a “new state-of-the-art-media lab”—an “interactive space designed to inspire marketers…[that] shows the future of media consumption and how marketers can most efficiently reach their targets across any platform.” Designed to reflect how digital media reflects “the consumer’s life,” the lab enables advertisers to “interact” by using “data visualization tools” to see how individuals can be targeted through streaming video, Internet of Things devices, on mobile phones and even via data-enriched outdoor advertising. Comcast: The cable TV colossus, which also operates Universal Studios, NBC, and several digital advertising and technology firms, is committed to better leveraging “Big Data.” Comcast sees itself at the “center (link is external) of the household building connections between users, devices, products, and services.” Comcast is developing capabilities to take better advantage of the insights generated (link is external) by its “systems capable of processing billions of events per day.” This includes identifying actionable data, including in “real time,” generated from its video and Internet platforms. Through its “identity strategy,” (link is external) Comcast plans to deliver a “transformative customer experience” that will market to us online “throughout the customer lifecycle.” To help accomplish this, Comcast is building out its “Big Data” capabilities at the “enterprise level,” including for “event processing, analytics,” storing our information in the cloud, and various forms of digital “testing and optimization.” Comcast’s “Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI)” group (link is external) is working to create “intelligent applications that [can] impact millions of people on a daily basis.” Among its projects involving “machine learning” are ways to “build (link is external) virtual assistants that interact with millions of customers in natural language and automatically find solutions to their needs.” It’s part of a much larger “Technology and Product” research infrastructure at Comcast that has offices in Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, Denver, Chicago and Washington, DC. Comcast is also deploying “blockchain” insights platform technology, which it calls BlockGraph (link is external), to help develop more detailed digital dossiers on consumers so they can be targeted for advertising and other services. Comcast’s “FreeWheel” (link is external) subsidiary, with offices in Paris and other global locations, is an advertising, data management and digital rights management technology company. FreeWheel helps video and digital media companies deploy what it calls a “unified ad management platform.” That system allows clients to engage in “intelligent ad decisioning (link is external) across all devices, environments, and data sets….” FreeWheel’s customers, which for the U.S. market include AT&T’s DirectTV, Fox, Time Warner and Viacom, can use its technologies to “unify audiences across desktop, mobile, OTT (so-called Over-the-Top streaming video), and [cable TV] set-top boxes [to] profitably monetize their content.” Comcast’s growing expansion (link is external) in data-driven marketing—operated by both its Advanced Advertising Group and Spotlight service—involves FreeWheel and other acquisitions, including Visible World and Strata. Strata (link is external), for example, is now partnering with “Choozle,” a Big Data-oriented advertising system that helps marketers target a consumer on social, mobile, video and other platforms. The Comcast’s Strata and Choozle (link is external) alliance “will allow thousands of advertising agencies to access detailed consumer data to execute digital advertising campaigns as conveniently as they would buy local TV advertising.” Comcast’s NBCUniversal division has also deepened its use of data-driven techniques to target its viewers. NBCU has its own “advanced advertising” platform (link is external)—Audience Studio—and is promising marketers that its “Total Audience Delivery” will help target (link is external) a consumer on “digital, linear, mobile and out-of-home viewing.” Its “data-based” profiling of its viewers includes information provided by “set top data from Comcast” and other sources. NBCU’s “Audience Studio Targeted Digital,” for example, enables advertisers to reach “digital (link is external) audiences” who view its portfolio of “entertainment, lifestyle, news, sports and Hispanic” content. Comcast’s NBCU urges advertisers to provide them their own (first-party) information on consumers so it can be merged with the TV network’s data. The result, claims NBCU, is that marketers will reach their “objectives through precision targeting at unequaled scale.” What NBCU means is that the same kinds of sophisticated capabilities that Comcast relies on to reach its broadband consumers are also available through its TV subsidiary. Verizon: To further its plans to harvest consumer information to bolster its “differentiated data” ad-targeting capabilities, Verizon has created a new division called “Oath.” (link is external) Incorporating “50 media and technology brands that engage more than a billion people around the world, the Oath portfolio includes HuffPost, Yahoo Sports, AOL, Tumblr, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail” and other properties. Oath operates a real-time data targeting apparatus called One (link is external). It also owns a leading digital video ad company called BrightRoll (link is external) that delivers targeted marketing in real time to streaming video. The result of Verizon’s investments, it explains, is the “most advanced and open advertising technology” system (link is external) that “spans across mobile, video, search, native and programmatic ads.” Verizon’s Oath promises its clients it delivers “people based marketing (link is external).” People-based marketing is a marketing industry euphemism for using our personal data to identify us online. In the case of Verizon’s Oath, that includes our “location, passions and interest from social (media), purchase intent from search and advertising engagement, cross device identity from users mapped across devices, favorite content from web, app and Smart TV data, on and offline purchases and recent store visits from mobile geolocation data.” Oath explains that its “suite (link is external) of advertising technology lets you activate this data to find and message consumers all along their journey.” Verizon acquired AOL after that company had made its own considerable acquisitions of data targeting companies, including those that access mobile (link is external) data from apps. Consequently, Verizon can claim that “Oath has the industry’s largest mobile demand portfolio to help you monetize across every device…,” including in real-time. This is just a brief snapshot of leading ISP data and digital marketing practices today. ISPs’ unfettered control over broadband communications enable them to eavesdrop on the communications and behaviors of millions of individuals and households. Without consumer safeguards, they will further mushroom into even more formidable—and unaccountable—gatekeepers over our information and privacy. -
Around the world citizens (link is external) and governments (link is external) are putting efforts toward limiting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children in order to address the growing obesity (link is external) epidemic worldwide. In the US, Congress and the Federal Trade Commission rely on weak self-regulatory industry standards, but under Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the government of Canada wishes to see restrictions placed on the marketing of food and beverages to children. This was a goal written directly into the Health Minister's mandate letter (link is external) signed by Trudeau in October 2017. As a result, Health Canada, the department of the Canadian government with responsibility for national public health, is considering new regulations that would impose broader restrictions on food advertising that is targeted at those under 17. It could cover everything from TV, online and print advertising to product labelling, in-store displays and even end some sponsorships for sports teams. Health Canada's consultations (link is external) on how it should approach restricting advertising of "unhealthy food and beverages" to kids began in June of 2017 and concluded in early August last year. Although a few contributors opposed any attempt to restrict marketing to children, the summary report (link is external) states that "Overall, the proposed approach and supporting evidence for restricting marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children were well received." The authors of the report point out that the "issue of age was not an area of inquiry," but most contributors supported the idea of including children between 13 and 17 years of age. Aiming to define "unhealthy foods," the consultation proposed to focus on restricting certain nutrients of concern (sodium, sugars, and saturated fats), and most commentators supported setting the stricter threshold option (of 5% ) for the proposed restrictions, which were based on a percentage of daily values (% DV). Commentators strongly preferred that option over the weaker proposal (15% DV). Using the percentage of daily values to define which foods are "healthy" or "unhealthy" relies on the already existing mandatory food labelling for most relevant foods. In addition to the proposal to restrict certain nutrients of concern, the proposed restrictions to the marketing of non-sugar sweeteners to children was also positively received. For the consultation, Health Canada looked at the Quebec ban (link is external) on advertising to children, which has been in place since 1980, and covers any advertising, not just food-related advertising. In that province, companies cannot market unhealthy food to children under 13 years old. Quebec has the lowest obesity rate (link is external) in Canada among children aged six to 11 and the highest rate of fruit and vegetable consumption. The Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition (link is external) (M2K Coalition), which includes the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Childhood Obesity Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, Diabetes Canada, Dietitians of Canada, and the Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems, supports the so-called Ottawa Principles (link is external). These evidence-based, expert-informed and collaboratively arrived principles call on governments to restrict the commercial marketing of all food and beverages to children and youth age 16 years and younger. Restrictions would include all forms of marketing with the exception of non-commercial marketing for public education. The M2K Coalition has taken this stance because of the complexities associated with defining healthy versus unhealthy food. The ad industry in Canada has some self-regulatory restrictions in place under the Canadian Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (link is external). That program, in which many major food companies are participants, sets out nutrition criteria for products that can be advertised in environments where kids under 12 make up 35 percent or more of the audience. The Association of Canadian Advertisers has criticized Health Canada's proposal as "significantly overbroad," calling it an "outright ban on most food and beverage marketing in Canada." The Canadian advertising initiative has tightened its criteria over time and is now monitoring online advertising more closely. 2016 was the first full year in which participating companies that advertise to kids had to ensure their products met new, tighter limits (link is external) on calories, sugar, sodium and saturated and trans fats. However, in 2017, a study (link is external) from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada called into question how effective this effort has been. It looked at the most popular websites visited by children and teens, and found ads for products high in sugar, salt or fat. During the time that the Canadian government began to explore the right approach to restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, Senator Nancy Greene-Raine introduced a private members bill in the Senate in the fall of 2016, seeking to amend the Food and Drugs Act to prohibit the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children (Bill S-228). This would put the activities of Health Canada on a legal basis. The Senator amended the bill to reflect the federal government’s proposed approach on raising the age limit to age 16 and under and kept the focus on “unhealthy” food and beverages. Bill S-228, The Child Health Protection Act (link is external), unanimously passed the Senate in September 2017. Two amendments to the bill were introduced during the first hour of debate in the House of Commons in December 2017, which included a reduction in the age of protection to under 13 (from 17) years, and the introduction of a 5-year post-legislation review period. The rationale for the change in the age amendment was to make the bill more likely to withstand a court challenge, given that the Quebec legislation restricting marketing to children under 13 years withstood a legal challenge in the case of Irwin Toy v Quebec (1989). In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada allowed limits on commercial advertising to children under 13 as constitutionally valid. The Court confirmed that "...advertising directed at young children is per se manipulative." (link is external) And so, while the Court found that the restrictions violated the freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a majority of the Court considered this violation to be a justifiable limitation necessary to protect children. For now, the bill is working its way through Parliament. Hopefully, the food industry will not further water down the requirements of the bill. If all goes well, our neighbor to the north will have a law in place by September 2018 that will advance public health and put children's health above the profits of the food industry. --- See attached infographic.
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Press Release
Statement of Jeff Chester on plans by FCC to review 3-hour Children’s Educational TV Programming Rule
Broadcasters want to kill one of their only few public interest obligations: to air at least 3 hours of educational children’s programming a week. The FCC is engaged in another outrageous form of digital highway robbery—to steal from kids in order to allow TV giants to make even more profits from shows filled with commercials. Broadcasters now earn billions of dollars from their free public license to transit television—including getting access to invaluable cable TV channels. They are supposed to serve as a “Trustee” of the airwaves—not video programming bandits. Without their 3 hour kidvid requirement, broadcasters will able to reap the financial rewards without any real payback to the public. Millions of kids in the U.S. live in homes that can’t afford cable or broadband. Kidvid programming plays an important role providing access to some quality content for these children. The Pai FCC—as it’s done by killing network neutrality—is engaged in a slash and burn campaign when it comes to much needed public interest consumer protections for media. We will vigorously fight this cynical and harmful move by the FCC to place the interests of the TV lobby ahead of America’s children. CDD helped lobby in the 3-hour rule in the 1990s and plans to work with allies, such as Sen Ed Markey, to protect the interests of parents and children. -
Can Democracy Survive Big Data & Micro-Profiling in Elections? (CPDP 2018 Video)
Organized by Center for Digital Democracy & Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue
Today’s political candidates and issue campaigns are fully integrated into the growing Big Data marketing infrastructure, with more and more companies in this sphere accelerating the pace of research and innovation and promising to transform how political campaigns and elections are conducted. Data management platforms, marketing clouds, and other new data services enable information about one’s finances, health, race, ethnicity, shopping behavior, and geo-location to be combined with political interests, reading habits, and voting records. Social media and digital platforms are facilitating many of these techniques, monetizing and normalizing “fake news,” “dark posts”, and other practices, and challenging fundamental principles such as privacy, data protection, and individual autonomy. It has been widely reported that political Big Data digital micro-targeting played a role in the election of President Trump as well as the Brexit vote in the UK, and is now the subject to growing scrutiny by regulatory authorities. Is the use of such technologies likely to cause harm and undermine the democratic process? What is the link between these technologies and fake news? How do policy frameworks in western democracies compare, in terms of controlling political election campaigns practices? What is the role of data protection legislation in protecting the privacy of voters? And what are the challenges for data protection authorities in addressing how commercial data can be sold or shared with political groups? --- Chair: Paul-Olivier Dehaye, PersonalDataIO (CH) Moderator: Anna Fielder, Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (UK) Speakers: Michael McEvoy, Office for Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia (CA); Irina Vasiliu, DG Justice, European Commission (EU); Jeffrey Chester, Center for Digital Democracy (US); Juhi Kulshrestha, Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research (DE) -
Computational politics—the application of digital targeted-marketing technologies to election campaigns in the US and elsewhere—are now raising the same concerns for democratic discourse and governance that they have long raised for consumer privacy and welfare in the commercial marketplace. This paper examines the digital strategies and technologies of today’s political operations, explaining how they were employed during the most recent US election cycle, and exploring the implications of their continued use in the civic context.---For the full journal, please visit https://policyreview.info/node/773/pdf (link is external) .
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Press Release
Death of Net Neutrality Will Spur Greater Loss of Digital Privacy, Further Content Consolidation & Control
Statement of Jeff Chester, CDD
The phone and cable lobby will use its new power over the Internet to further erode the privacy rights of Americans. Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon will be entirely free to tap into the data flowing from our mobile devices, PCs, gaming and streaming platforms and set-top boxes. These ISP giants have already built up a formidable (link is external) commercial data gathering and Big Data analytics infrastructure. Now they will expand their gathering of our personal information, inc. financial, health, media use, and also force competitors to share the data they collect. If you want ISPs to give you preferential treatment, content providers will be forced to give up your data, so phone and cable can further expand their ad revenues. Independent and small content companies—including non-commercial and diversely-owned services—will be pressed to consent to terms that favor the digital gatekeepers that control our broadband highway. The FCC’s Net Neutrality decision will trigger a powerful wave of consolidation and deal making that further reduces the range of content and services we should expect in the 21st Century (including for children). We also believe that Google, Facebook and other providers will likely make their peace with the big ISPs, creating a powerful alliance that controls the U.S.’s digital destiny. CDD will be a part of the collaborative work to address this. We urge everyone to also “follow the data” as they examine the digital marketing plans of Verizon, Comcast and AT&T (link is external). There they will find plenty of opportunity to educate the public about our digital future has been placed at great risk. -
Statement of Kathryn C Montgomery, Ph.D. Professor, School of Communication, American University Senior Consultant, Center for Digital Democracy December 4, 2017 In its first formal move to enter the children’s digital marketplace, Facebook has taken a responsible approach to this sensitive age group. It has created a “walled garden” messenger service designed exclusively for younger children; established strong parental controls; kept the service free of advertising; and restricted the use of many data collection and targeting practices that are employed routinely in its other services. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) – which we helped pass in 1998, and which was updated in 2012 – has established a strong framework for protecting children 12 and under from unfair data collection and targeting. However, additional safeguards are necessary to protect young people from powerful new forms of commercial surveillance in the Big Data and Internet-of-things era. By designing an ad-free and safe environment for children, Facebook is playing a leadership role in developing responsible corporate practices that could be the basis for industry-wide guidelines. But it is too early to understand fully how young people’s engagement with this new generation of digital interactive platforms will impact their psychosocial development. All stakeholders—including health professionals, educators, scholars, advocates, policymakers, and corporations — will need to monitor very closely how these services evolve. ---
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Press Release
Federal Election Commission (FEC) Must Hold Hearings on Role of Digital Media in Political Campaigns
The Center for Digital Democracy calls on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to hold hearings examining the role that the Internet and related digital data applications now play in federal political campaigns. The public needs a better understanding of how contemporary digital practices in the “Big Data” era affect our electoral system. CDD also urges the FEC to begin a rulemaking to revise its regulations concerning disclaimers so the public has appropriate access to information regarding the operations of online ads and related content. “The FEC must hold hearings to examine how, in this era of “Big Data” and personalized digital marketing, the unrestricted use of consumer information for political targeting may threaten our democratic process,” said Katharina Kopp, policy director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “Political campaigns now have access to an array of details on individuals that wasn’t previously available, including what they do online and offline. As we witnessed last year, this new capability can be used to engage in online suppression tactics to dissuade individuals and groups from voting. We urge the FEC to examine how digital data-driven campaigns may disenfranchise communities of color and economically at risk individuals." --- For more information, please see the attached media advisory and comment by the CDD. -
Political Microtargeting Threatens Privacy, Integrity of Voting Process
Big Data Election Marketing Practices Require Regulation, Safeguards
Haystaq DNA brings predictive analytics to election races up and down the ballot everywhere from presidential to city council elections. Haystaq provides support to political campaigns in need of using voter file data along with custom turnout scors, candidate support, issue scores and fundraising scores to reach voters most efficiently using a myriad of marketing tactics. --- --- For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2yrKQ0u (link is external) -
Learn about NCC Digital Media: the primary source for reaching consumers across all screens, helping brands target consumers across all screens. --- For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2gUeYq2 (link is external)
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Time to Protect the Privacy of Voters in the Digital Age
Lack of US consumer data rules allows political groups to track & target you
Learn about CampaignGrid Direct, the most powerful online voter targeting with digital advertising for political professionals. For more information, visit https://campaigngriddirect.com/ (link is external) -
Google is a Publisher, as it Expands Video Content Services
Also bundles YouTube content and directly sells to advertisers
YouTube plans to produce a half-dozen original series that will be available for free on the world’s most popular video website, a big expansion of the Google (link is external)-owned company’s programming and efforts to attract advertisers. Comedian Kevin Hart, talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and the comedy duo Rhett & Link are producing unscripted shows that will debut this year, YouTube will announce at an event for advertisers in New York Thursday. Alphabet Inc. (link is external)’s Google also will increase its spending on YouTube Red, a paid video and music streaming service launched in October 2015. The plans mark a shift for Google, which has typically treated its huge video library as a web free-for-all rather than a home for TV shows. But as more digital rivals venture into high-quality programming, YouTube is feeling pressure to respond, devoting resources to more costly projects and aiming for a wider audience. The company will fund more than 40 original shows and movies in the next year, spending hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the plans. YouTube is betting high-profile stars will attract more advertisers like Johnson & Johnson, which is sponsoring “Best.Cover.Ever,” a music competition from Ryan Seacrest that’s scheduled for later this year. “We’re working with YouTube stars and big celebrities that we know have global appeal, advertiser appeal and are largely established on the platform,” Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s head of original content, said in an interview. YouTube’s mission at the annual Newfront presentations in New York, where online companies are introducing their latest initiatives this week, is to convince marketers to shift more ad money to the web from TV. Original programming is front and center, with YouTube pitching premium shows that it says merit big commitments from sponsors. Those efforts got more complicated last month when advertisers discovered some of their spots appeared next to extremist videos (link is external). YouTube adopted new rules and said the scandal had minimal impact on sales. Still advertisers are wary of a site that relies on so many user videos, which makes it harder to ensure ads run alongside high-quality shows. “The two biggest players in the Newfronts are YouTube and Hulu, yet neither tells you exactly where your ad ran,” said Ben Winkler, chief investment officer of OMD USA, part of the Omnicom Group Inc. advertising company. “I expect YouTube will be the first to blink.” DeGeneres, who hosts one of the most popular talk shows on TV, will take viewers behind the scenes of her program. Hart, a popular comedian, will try a different trendy workout routine every week alongside celebrity guests in “Kevin Hart: What the Fit?” The show will debut on his Laugh Out Loud Network on YouTube. YouTube also will help Rhett & Link expand on their already popular “Good Mythical Morning” to create a series that feels every bit as grand as TV talk shows. While most recent episodes feature the two hosts at a desk, the revamped version, in its 11th season, will include more guests, challenges and correspondents. “We want to be seen as legit in ways by people who don’t see internet shows as legit,” said Rhett, whose real name is Rhett James McLaughlin. “But the way to do that is not to imitate late-night TV shows.” YouTube decided to fund ad-supported programs more than a year ago after executives saw a study on the growing number of TV shows being produced. Most of the new shows appear on premium services with no ads. That created an opening. --- Read more at https://bloom.bg/2y8Cdb2 (link is external) See Google program packaging for advertisers: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/products/google-preferred/ (link is external) -
Fox Links with Comcast for Targeting Individual Households via Set-top boxes & Streaming
ISPs, Programmers, Digital Platforms, Advertisers web of connected relationships require antitrust and consumer protection scrutiny.
Fox Network Groups has begun selling advertising in the video-on-demand content from its channels that is addressable on an individual household basis through Comcast Cable set-top boxes and streaming via Hulu. TV networks are looking for ways to create innovations in advertising that can increase its value in an increasingly digital age. Fox has already been selling precision audience targeted ads on its linear network with its AIM solution. It is also a partner in Open AP, which is attempting to standardize selling ads based on specific audience targets rather than the traditional broad age and sex base demographic groups. Comcast Cable has done addressable ad campaigns using dynamic ad insertion technology with its corporate sibling NBCUniversal. Working with Fox is part of a trial program to see how the distributor can work with programmers on addressable advertising. A source indicated that Comcast is conducting addressable trials with another, unnamed, network group. Both Fox and Comcast use Freewheel, a division of Comcast, to handle ad insertions. Fox’s addressable effort is unique because in addition to working with Comcast’s subscribers, it can also offer viewers streaming on-demand programming from Fox Networks including Fox Broadcasting, FX, National Geographic and Fox Sports via Hulu. Noah Levine, senior VP, advertising data & technology solution at Fox Network Group says that between Comcast and Hulu Fox and its advertising clients more than 10 million households on an addressable basis. Levine was expected to announce Fox’s new addressable advertising effort at the B&C/Multichannel News Next TV Summit in New York Wednesday (Oct. 18), part of NYC Television Week. “Our strategy is to continue selling to linear buyer through Fox AIM linear,” Levine said. “Now we can also work with the addressable buyers to pursue the addressable opportunity.” Fox is looking to add cross-platform precision audience targeting. “Our goal is to be able to provide audience targeting across our very wide portfolio of content regardless of the distribution modality,” Levine said. --- Read more at http://bit.ly/2ivJvyx (link is external) -
Google Brings Big Data Personalized Ad Targeting to TV
Smarter TV Ad Breaks Automatically Optimize Your Ad Break to the Revenue-Maximizing Combination of Ads, Personalized and Relevant for Each Viewer
Google's DoubleClick team October 2017 Opt-Ed piece: I believe that the future of TV is one that’s smarter — that brings together the TV content you love with the seamless experience of digital — on every screen or surface. Building towards that future, at our Partner Leadership Summit in Chicago early this month, we announced several new products and features to DoubleClick for Publishers, made for our TV. Video ad experiences get smarter, live and on-demand, with Dynamic Ad Insertion Over the years, we’ve rebuilt our video platform from the ground up — we knew that TV was a very different experience from the web and we knew that broadcasters had different challenges, infrastructure, distribution partners and content from web publishers. With TV coming to digital, we put our stake in the future of building for a better user experience — one that was connected, always on, and on-demand. Powering dynamic ad insertion has become a leading benefit of our platform. Over the last couple of years, we’ve successfully powered dynamic ad insertion for live streaming and on-demand content for many of the largest news, sports events and episodic premiers. In fact, over the past two years alone we’ve seen a 4X increase in ad impressions delivered via our Dynamic Ad Insertion product by TV partners like CBSi, AMC, Bloomberg, TF1 (link is external) and many more. Smarter TV ad breaks optimize revenue within each pod, programmatically We’re also bringing new updates to a key feature of our platform — smarter TV ad breaks. With this update, ad slots no longer need to be sold as fixed lengths in the break. Smarter TV ad breaks automatically optimize your ad break to the revenue-maximizing combination of ads, personalized and relevant for each viewer. For example, a ninety second ad break can now be filled by two 15-second and two 30-second ads or one 15-second, one 60-second and two 6-second bumper (link is external) ads depending on what will bring you the most revenue. Importantly, we’re able to do this across your programmatic or reservation deals, while respecting your business rules, such as competitive exclusions and frequency capping within the break or stream. Content gets smarter with TV Content Explorer To effectively monetize TV content, you need a platform that can better understand the content you’re monetizing, the audiences engaging with it and serve the right ad in just the right moment no matter where users are consuming it. That’s why we’re launching TV Content Explorer in DoubleClick for Publishers, available in beta by the end of 2017. Leveraging Google’s machine learning expertise and smart heuristics, TV Content Explorer creates and automatically organizes an intuitive catalog of your shows and clips. We analyze millions of signals from video content feeds, automatically applying classifiers and making recommendations for how content should be organized across dimensions like show, genre, trending, dayparts, etc. With this inventory catalog, you’ll get a clearer view of the opportunities and packages available to sell. But that’s not all. To ensure that you aren’t leaving any revenue on the table, the Explorer will also proactively surface deeper insights into audiences and monetization opportunities via insight cards (link is external). We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with this feature and are excited to bring even more innovation to this Explorer in the future. --- For the full article, please visit http://bit.ly/2zvJUEk (link is external)