A Look Back at Q1 2014
2014 has already been a busy and exciting year for us at NAI. For those who missed our recent member call, we’re making a renewed effort to make the changes at NAI at the request of you, our members. Here are some of the highlights.
We engaged a legislative affairs team to assist us with more aggressive messaging and outreach here in Washington, DC. While we can’t engage in every privacy debate, we will actively participate in any effort that involves the third-party advertising ecosystem. We’ll be there to explain the value of third-party data, the critical role of self-regulation, and the high standards NAI members follow regarding the collection and use of data for Interest-Based Advertising. We will also explore more involvement at the state level and work with sister associations on those increasingly important efforts.
We were also privileged to meet with former White House Chief of Staff and current White House Counselor John Podesta to address issues and questions regarding the Obama administration’s efforts around Big Data. Marc Groman, President and CEO of NAI, as well as NAI members BlueKai, Quantcast, and AppNexus participated. The meeting was very productive and we were pleased to find the White House staff to be knowledgeable and engaged on consumer privacy issues. Other NAI members such as Google, Yahoo, Neustar, and DataLogix attended separate meetings with Mr. Podesta. According to Nicole Wong, the White House is aiming to release a report on privacy and big data during the first week in May. We’ll be discussing that report at the NAI Summit on May 20, which is yet another reason to attend.
We also recently made changes to the 2014 compliance process in order to make it more efficient and easier for our members. We know how resource-intensive the annual compliance review can be and our goal is to simplify the process and streamline our efforts. We have circulated a new, abbreviated compliance questionnaire that has 30 percent fewer questions that the previous version and also includes a compliance checklist to assist members with the review. We also held four webinars to highlight recent amendments to the NAI self-regulatory Code of Conduct and opt-out best practices. Participation has been extraordinary, but if you missed a session and if you have questions or would like training, feel free to contact Noga Rosenthal to make arrangements.
Finally, Q1 2014 also brought about an exciting change for NAI; we have closed down our office in Maine and opened a new office in New York at 156 Fifth Avenue, Fourth Floor. We decided to relocate to New York to provide our many members who are based in the city or who travel there frequently with more access to NAI staff and executives. We greatly value face-to-face communication and collaboration, which was a desire expressed by many of our members as well.
If you’d like to set up an in-person meeting or a conference call, please contact Noga Rosenthal; otherwise, we will look forward to seeing you all face-to-face at next month’s Summit!
