ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In
today's political environment, many American voters have grown wary
about the political content they encounter online. Legislators and
social media platforms have struggled with 21st century
challenges associated with political content in our digital lives.
Now, to partially address these issues, BBB National Programs'
Digital Advertising Accountability Program (DAAP) will be
monitoring online content to ensure that advertisers follow new
best practices for online political advertising.
At the start of the year, BBB National Programs' DAAP, known for
its work in the digital privacy space, began monitoring online
sources to ensure that online political advertisements — regardless
of position or party affiliation — comply with the Digital
Advertising Alliance's (DAA) Political Advertising Principles.
"With the new BBB National Programs political advertising
program, we are taking steps to empower voters and address the
issue of transparency as it applies to political advertising. Our
new program is designed to monitor and enforce DAA's industry best
practices for political advertising. Our program is designed to
help voters better recognize what entity is paying for the
political advertisements they are viewing," said BBB National
Programs Chief Executive Officer, Eric D.
Reicin.
The DAA Principles call for providing users with notice about
the origin of advertising supporting the election or defeat of
political candidates. Political advertisers work with their
advertising tech partners to provide the DAA's Political Ads
Icon — or an equivalently prominent notice marking the
advertisement as political — in or around their online political
advertisements. These notices take users to a disclosure that gives
voters information about who paid for the advertisement, including
the name of the political advertiser, the contact information for
that entity, and a link to a searchable database of political
advertisement contributions and expenditures.
Using sophisticated monitoring technology, a team of BBB
National Programs DAAP professionals review online sources for
political advertising and evaluate the advertisements it finds
against the DAA Political Advertising Principles. Political
advertisements that seem to violate the Principles will be reported
on a publicly available forum, launching next month. Where it
identifies apparent non-compliance, the BBB National Programs DAAP
will also, in its discretion, contact the advertiser to address the
issue and, where appropriate, recommend changes to the advertiser's
practices.
Further, if a member of the general public identifies a possible
violation, they are invited to report it to DAAP.
To commemorate the launch of the program, the DAAP has also
produced a high-level summary of its initial observations of 2020
political ads, located here.
BBB National Programs is where companies, industry experts and
trade associations work together within a self-regulatory
environment to address issues of national and global importance,
and to foster industry best practices in truth-in-advertising,
child-directed marketing, data privacy, and dispute resolution.
Since its creation, the BBB National Programs' DAAP has issued
more than 100 actions enforcing consumer privacy in digital
advertising and has built a reputation for fairness. Where
companies have refused to comply, the program has made government
referrals to relevant regulatory enforcement agencies. This new
compliance initiative aims to replicate the success of the
self-regulatory privacy programs in the evolving area of online
political advertising.
To learn more about the BBB National Programs DAAP, the DAA
Political Advertising Principles, and to reach out proactively
about compliance, please contact accountability@bbbnp.org.
About the BBB National Programs Digital Advertising
Accountability Program: The Digital Advertising
Accountability Program (DAAP), a division of BBB National
Programs, protects consumers' privacy online by providing
independent, third-party enforcement of cross-industry best
practices governing the collection and use of data in online
interest-based advertising. DAAP also provides guidance to
companies looking to come into compliance with the Digital
Advertising Alliance's principles and responds to complaints filed
by consumers about online privacy.
About BBB National Programs: BBB National Programs
fosters trust, innovation, and competition in the marketplace
through the development and delivery of effective, third-party
self-regulation, dispute resolution and other programs. BBB
National Programs is the home of industry self-regulatory and
dispute resolution programs that include the National Advertising
Division (NAD), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), BBB EU
Privacy Shield, BBB AUTO LINE, Children's Advertising Review Unit
(CARU), Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
(CFBAI), Children's Confection Advertising Initiative (CCAI),
Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC), Digital Advertising
Accountability Program (DAAP), and the Coalition for Better
Advertising Dispute Resolution Program (CBA DRM). The programs
are designed to resolve business issues and advance shared
objectives by responding to marketplace concerns to create a better
customer experience. To learn more about industry self-regulation,
please visit: BBBNP.org.
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SOURCE BBB National Programs; Digital Advertising Accountability
Program