NAI Code Compliance Report 2009

Following on from Tuesday's topic of terms and conditions for interactive advertising, the US Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) has just released their 2009 compliance report.

The NAI is an association of 35 US advertising networks, data exchanges, and marketing analytics services providers including Advertising.com, Google and Yahoo.

The NAI Compliance Report 2009 discusses compliance by its members with its self-regulatory code of conduct governing the collection, use, and disclosure of data for online advertising services by its member companies (the NAI Code). The NAI Code has its own definition of personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive information and its own protection principles. The NAI found its members to be broadly in compliance with the code, apart from ten members that did not disclose specific retention periods for data collected.

Whatever your views of behavioural advertising, industry initiatives like this to improve, and report on, standards are a welcome contribution. No doubt the code will evolve over time, but it is a good starting point. The code perhaps lacks requirements for measuring the accuracy of data or requiring ways for consumers to correct information about themselves, and it would be useful to know what checks are being undertaken as part of the audit. For example "Reasonable security is determined in light of several factors including, but not limited to, the sensitivity of the data, the nature of a company's business operations, the types of risks a company faces, and the reasonable protections available to a company" could be interpreted in a number of ways and some guidance on what is "reasonable" both from the organisation and individual's points of view would be welcome.

P.S. Happy new year.