Major Update for DAA's AdChoices Opt-Out Tool

In New York, ad industry standards body the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) has announced an update for its AdChoices program, which offers browsers the chance to opt out of ads via the 'little blue triangle'. The changes are the most significant since the privacy-based symbol was introduced fourteen years ago.

The DAA was launched in 2010 by the IAB and other trade associations, partly as a signal to privacy advocates and legislators that the industry was serious about self-regulating. The body introduced the blue triangle icon to reassure consumers that behavioral ad companies complied with accepted standards.

With the glacially slow phasing-out of the cookie now finally (apparently) underway, the technology base of the DAA's platform will shift away from a cookie-based opt-out tool to a browser-based extension which supports opt-outs across both cookies and emerging technologies, such as probabilistic IDs and hashed emails or phone numbers. The new WebChoices 2.0 is compatible with 'most' major browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, and will in future allow users to express category preferences around topics of interest, in addition to company-specific and industry-wide opt-outs. Cross-industry integration will allow ad tech companies to factor in consumer choices and preferences when programmatic bids are made, and adjust accordingly.

Those consumers who have already expressed cookie-based choices will keep their settings - the choices continue to be honored until such cookies are deprecated or expire.

Lou Mastria, President & CEO of the DAA, comments: 'Over the past 14 years, the AdChoices icon has become a trusted gateway for privacy information and control for millions of Americans. As the advertising industry undergoes dramatic change, the DAA's opt-out tools are keeping pace with those changes, so people can express their choices for both existing and new technologies used for advertising IDs. This choice tool will ensure Americans continue to have one-click access to information and choices about targeted ads directly from the ads themselves and on the apps or websites they visit'.

According to a DAA survey conducted in February 2024, most Americans say they recognize the AdChoices Icon (79%), find it useful (78%), think it is easy to understand (85%), and believe it increases trust in the advertisers that use it (72%).

Beta testing for WebChoices 2.0 is scheduled to conclude in the next quarter, with the program moving to general availability. Companies currently using the DAA's cookie-based tool are expected to integrate with WebChoices 2.0 by December 31st, but will then have a grace period of 180 days before enforcement.

The DAA also offers an app-based choice tool, AppChoices.

Web site: www.aboutads.info .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.