What’s the Harm in Digital Advertising? Developments in Perception of Consumer Privacy Harms and How Policymakers are Responding

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2024

As part of the 2024 National Advertising Institute (NAI) Summit.

Panel 5: What’s the Harm in Digital Advertising? Developments in Perception of Consumer Privacy Harms and How Policymakers are Responding

• Tony Ficarrotta, Vice President & General Counsel, NAI
• Nathalie Maréchal, Co-Director, Privacy & Data Project, Center for Democracy & Technology
• Maneesha Mithal, Co-Chair, Wilson Sonsini
• Jules Polonetsky, CEO, The Future of Privacy Forum

Digital advertising is becoming an increasingly regulated industry with ever-increasing activity among state lawmakers, state attorneys general, private litigants, and the FTC to promulgate and enforce privacy laws, both old and new. But as privacy laws are conceived of as primarily consumer protection laws, we have to ask – what’s the harm in showing consumers more relevant advertising? To address that question, this panel will discuss:

• The “traditional” model of honoring consumer preferences to avoid subjective harms like embarrassment or distaste;
• Recent findings from the Kochava litigation about the potential for harm presented by data collection and secondary uses;
• The proliferation of categories of “sensitive data” and the perception of policymakers of the more serious and more objective harms those categories may entail.
• The tools policymakers are employing to address perceived harms.
• How self-regulatory groups like the NAI are working to mitigate risks of consumer harm while enabling relevant advertising.