DAA Prepares Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Mobile Targeting

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As adoption of the Digital Advertising Alliance's self-regulatory program for behavioral advertising continues to spread, the organization is now turning its attention to the mobile space. It plans to release a set of principles relating to behaviorally targeted mobile advertising by the end of the year.

The DAA also hopes to encourage global adoption of its program and icon, starting with the U.K. and Europe.

"Efforts are underway to transition the existing principles to the mobile space… Mobile is hugely important, and international is hugely important," DAA managing director Peter Kosmala told ClickZ, adding that the organization would like to formulate a single global standard, icon, and opt-out mechanism for behavioral targeting.

Both in the U.S. and in Europe regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of data collection from mobile devices, specifically in relation to the collection of location-based data for purposes including ad targeting.

Various industry bodies such as the Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau are currently formulating guidelines and best practices of their own relating to the collection of data from mobile devices, but the DAA says it plans to create an enforceable code of conduct around the practice, similar to the one it's created for desktop-based behavioral targeting.

Its technology working group will also propose a technical solution for an opt-out, since the cookie-based method currently being used for desktop machines will be less effective on mobile devices, thanks to fragmentation in the way they handle that data.

Besides its work around mobile and its hopes to export its work internationally, Kosmala emphasized that the DAA's current priority is still to address desktop-based behavioral advertising in the U.S. market. It plans to roll out a consumer awareness campaign in the fall to promote its behavioral ad icon and the data control mechanisms it provides.

Despite the DAA's self-regulatory efforts, the Federal Trade Commission continues to discuss the possible implementation of a do-not-track mechanism, which would - in theory - allow users to completely opt out of any data collection whatsoever. The DAA's current opt-out solution still required a cookie to be placed on users' machines, for example, which the FTC appears keen to avoid.

However, Kosmala expressed confidence that the self-regulation program would stave off formal legislation around behavioral advertising, and added that FTC feedback on its progress so far has been encouraging