{"id":4083,"date":"2022-01-19T00:36:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T00:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/19\/democrats-move-to-ban-surveillance-advertising\/"},"modified":"2022-01-19T00:36:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T00:36:06","slug":"democrats-move-to-ban-surveillance-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/19\/democrats-move-to-ban-surveillance-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats move to ban ‘surveillance advertising’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Democrats today introduced<\/a> new legislation aimed at banning nearly all forms of what its authors label \u201csurveillance advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cBanning Surveillance Advertising Act,\u201d introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-California), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), would prohibit advertising platforms such as Google LLC and Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, from selling targeted ads based on users\u2019 personal data.<\/p>\n

Advertisers would be barred from targeting users based on \u201cprotected class information,\u201d which is things such as their gender, race and religion. There would be some exemptions, allowing for use of \u201cbroad\u201d location-based targeting, such as ads targeted at a specific municipality. The bill would also not prohibit \u201ccontextual advertising,\u201d such as showing ads to users based on what content they\u2019re engaging with.<\/p>\n

The bill calls for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to enforce any violations of the law. It also allows individual users to sue any company that violates the law, granting up to $5,000 in relief per violation.<\/p>\n

Eshoo (pictured) said in a press release that surveillance advertising is a \u201ctoxic business model\u201d and one that causes \u201cirreparable harm\u201d to consumers, businesses and democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018surveillance advertising\u2019 business model is premised on the unseemly collection and hoarding of personal data to enable ad targeting,\u201d she continued. \u201cThis pernicious practice allows online platforms to chase user engagement at great cost to our society, and it fuels disinformation, discrimination, voter suppression, privacy abuses and so many other harms. The surveillance advertising business model is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

The introduction of the bill is not surprising, given the years of inaction by the likes of Google and Facebook on very real concerns about their advertising strategies, Charles King of Pund-IT Inc. told SiliconANGLE.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as its chances of passage, who knows? The Dems control the House but they\u2019re hardly united when it comes to business regulations,\u201d King said. \u201cEven if the bill does attract enough support to pass, the current rules and makeup of the Senate could result in it being locked up for months or killed outright, depending on what lobbyists from the companies targeted are willing to do or pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said one notable point is that Eshoo\u2019s Congressional district includes a significant portion of Silicon Valley. \u201cIt\u2019ll be worth watching to see how local business leaders and political analysts respond to the bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although the bill would undoubtedly force Google, Facebook and others to alter their business models radically, it has attracted support from various quarters. Public interest organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Demand Progress and the Center for Digital Democracy all voiced their support, as did companies such as the privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo and Proton Technologies AG, creator of the encrypted email service ProtonMail.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurveillance advertising is at the heart of every exploitative online business model that exacerbates manipulation, discrimination, misinformation, extremism, and fundamentally violates people\u2019s privacy in ways they would never choose if given a true choice,\u201d Schakowsky said in a statement.\u201cThe Banning Surveillance Advertising Act will put a stop to this repulsive practice and therefore protect consumers by removing the financial incentive for companies to exploit consumers\u2019 personal information and help stop a morass of online harms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo: Anna Eshoo\/Flickr<\/a><\/h5>\n
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