At Lotame, we take seriously issues of user privacy. In that spirit, we are very happy to announce Lotame has been accepted as a member of the Network Advertisers Initiative (known as the “NAI”). The NAI is the leading self-regulatory organization for online marketing and analytics companies. The NAI has enacted standards for protecting consumer privacy and promoting responsible marketing behavior, which can be found here. We and other NAI members have committed to conduct our businesses in compliance with these important standards.
In connection with joining the NAI, we have made some revisions to our privacy policy. Although our prior policy was generally consistent with the NAI’s standards, we simplified our language in some areas of the policy in deference to the more detailed coverage of these points in the NAI principles, which will govern our conduct. In addition, in order to demonstrate our leadership on issues of privacy, we have voluntarily adopted a specific time period of 9 months to limit our retention of the anonymous user data we collect. We are joining only a few other leading companies in our industry in taking on this type of specific and unqualified data retention policy.
We look forward to working alongside other NAI members, the NAI, and other industry groups to ensure that we can continue to evolve our industry’s business practices and policies in ways that respect the needs and interests of online consumers.
Adam Lehman, COO, Lotame
Tags: Lotame, nai, network advertising initiative
Hello, Congratulations on joining the NAI!
Please see the privacychoice comment on your new privacy policy:
http://tinyurl.com/dg4unl
Can you please provide clarification on the following questions:
1. Is Lotame incorporating by reference the NAI policies in their entirety, as written and interpreted by the NAI? I don’t recall seeing that approach in many other privacy policies.
Substantively, it is of course helpful for consumers to know that a particular ad network is abiding by a standard like NAI’s rules. But it is not helpful when a consumer has to undertake a research project to figure out what those policies may be. In this case, Lotame’s link to the NAI site still leaves the consumer to find and interpret the NAI’s policy document (a PDF that is, for some reason, buried in the news release section of the NAI site, rather than in the over view of principles).
In short, incorporating the NAI principles by reference this way is a very weak way to inform consumers of Lotame’s privacy policies. In fact, it would be hard to say that it satisfies the NAI’s requirement in the policies themselves that each member “clearly and conspicuously” post their policies on their website.
2. A change in the policy that is not mentioned specifically in Lotame’s announcement is the deletion of the following language from the previous policy statement:
“In addition, we do not tailor ads based on behavioral categories that are deemed sensitive by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI).”
The NAI policy (in Section II(3)(iv) of the 2008 Principles) requires a consumer opt-in in order to use sensitive information for targeting; so the inference (see discussion above) is that Lotame is now bound by that rule. However, this is important enough to merit a specific statement in Lotame’s privacy policy, particularly in light of the deletion.
[...] how the policy changes are explained in Lotame’s announcement: In connection with joining the NAI, we have made some revisions to our privacy policy. Although [...]