It’s Time to Do More: The NAI’s Commitment to Action, Diversity, and Inclusion

The NAI team is deeply troubled by systemic racism and violence against Black people, and in light of the inexcusable killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the role of police brutality that is sparking outrage in our country and across the world, we are moved to take action. We believe strongly that it is our responsibility to shine a light on injustice, to acknowledge the serious work that needs to be done, both in our country and in our industry, to ensure that opportunities and rights are given to all, regardless of race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, and anything else that makes us the unique individuals we are. 

Black lives matter. Our actions matter. It’s time to do more. We are committed to providing resources to advance social justice, education, and campaigns against racism and violence. We want to foster diversity and inclusion, not only in our organization, but in the ad tech and privacy community to confront injustice through specific actions.

Today, prompted by our concern and motivated by our urge to do better, the NAI is taking specific and measurable actions to promote the values of inclusiveness, diversity, opportunity, and justice. These actions include: 

• Making potential algorithmic bias in tailored advertising a policy priority for the NAI and contributing staff time and attention to developing policies that ensure technological advances don’t lead to unfair discrimination against people of color.
• Implementing a formal pro bono policy to enable each member of the NAI’s staff to contribute up to fifty hours annually in legal aid to organizations and people in need. This policy will include a commensurate budget and will apply to the entire NAI staff, not just attorneys.
• Matching each employee’s charitable contributions up to $500 annually to an organization dedicated to furthering equality and justice.
• Initiating a dialogue with our partners across the entire digital advertising ecosystem to identify opportunities to increase the commitment and investment in recruiting a more inclusive workforce, and to reverse the practices that can lead to systemic racism.

We recognize that as a society, and an industry, we have a lot of work to do. These are initial steps that will be part of a sustained, long-term effort to achieve meaningful change. In this effort, we look forward to exploring concrete steps to collaborate with our cross-industry partners, the privacy community, and other stakeholders, in an initiative to promote diversity and inclusion, and to fight against racial injustice.