Wyden, Booker Introduce Bill to Ban Surveillance Advertising
Washington, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced legislation that prohibits advertising networks and facilitators from using personal data to target advertisements.
“The first place to start in holding companies accountable is to attack the business model so many of the big tech companies depend on,” Wyden said. “If you take away the incentive to hoover up users’ personal data, you make it harder to target them both with objectionable content and take a sledgehammer to the incentive to design platforms in a way that can be harmful – especially for kids and teens. That’s exactly what this legislation does.”
The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act bans advertisers from targeting ads based on protected demographic information such as race, gender and religion.
The bill allows certain types of contextual based advertisements which reflect a user’s content engagement and broad location.
The legislation is supported by leading public interest organizations, academics, and companies with privacy-preserving business models.
The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act was led in the House by U.S. Representatives Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
The text of the bill is here.
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