Industry offers consumers greater transparency and control over OBA

BRUSSELS, 8 December 2011:

Industry and self-regulatory bodies are meeting today to finalise the launch of the European Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) which will administer an innovative and revolutionary self-regulatory system for online behavioural advertising (OBA). The self-regulatory system provides Internet users with an unprecedented level of transparency and control over behavioural advertising.

The transparency element is provided by a universally recognisable icon (“AdChoices” in English) that will appear wherever third parties are collecting data for behavioural advertising purposes. When clicking on the icon, users will be presented with clear and easy-to-understand information about behavioural advertising.

The icon will also give users mechanisms of control over behavioural advertising, including the pan-European Your Online Choices web site (www.youronlinechoices.eu). This site covers already 16 EU/EEA countries and includes an easy-to-use functionality (available to any user from any EU/EEA country) that will turn off behavioural advertising for users if they want. The most remarkable feature of this is that it represents an industry-wide commitment, backed by the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA)’s well-established and widely recognised complaints handling system, which is independent and free of charge to users.

The self-regulatory system for OBA goes beyond what the law requires today in terms of transparency and control, and importantly, delivers this via an innovative, contextual mechanism that improves considerably on traditional opt-in approaches that are disruptive for users. The self-regulatory initiative is part of a package of measures, both regulatory and self-regulatory, which overall will provide compliance with the revised legislation currently being implemented at national level across the EU/EEA.

European industry has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders about the self-regulatory system, and is committed to working together with partners to improve it on an ongoing basis. The Article 29 Working Party, which is meeting this week, is one of these stakeholders. We look forward to continuing to work with the Working Party to advance this ground-breaking and innovative approach to empowering Internet users with tools to protect their privacy.

For further information, please contact:

IAB Europe:

Kimon Zorbas, Vice President, vp@iabeurope.eu T: +32 494 34 91 68 (English, French, German) Geraldine Gitel, Press Officer T: + 44 (0) 7917 885380 (English, French) pressrelations@iabeurope.eu

EASA:

Renée Brautigam: communications@easa-alliance.org, By phone: +32 2 513 78 06