Statement by the NAI on Google’s Approach to Consumer Privacy and Digital Advertising

WASHINGTON, DC (February 16, 2022) – The following statement by NAI President and CEO Leigh Freund regards Google’s announcement on introducing the Privacy Sandbox on Android and creating an opportunity for key stakeholders to provide input on the initiative:

“The NAI strongly shares Google’s goal of enhancing user privacy, while continuing to enable ad-supported digital media. We appreciate that Google has once again opened a dialogue for collaboration among all stakeholders, rather than making a unilateral decision.

The current digital advertising marketplace is rich and diverse, comprised of companies large and small across the publishing, advertising and ad-tech sectors. New technologies and approaches must embrace and enhance competition, not diminish it. To that end, The NAI is deeply engaged in discussions with our members and other key stakeholders in an effort to create new technology solutions and industry practices that can enhance consumer privacy while allowing our robust ad-supported digital media marketplace to thrive.

Those objectives can be achieved across mobile apps as well as the Web and other platforms and devices. Consumers and the ad industry will benefit from solutions that address various platforms, rather than simply having siloed conversations about specific platforms or limiting the discussion to “third-party” data. All companies who collect or process consumer data, regardless of their position in the marketplace, need to be responsible stewards of that data. Consumers deserve effective transparency about the collection and use of their data, as well as the ability to make important decisions about those uses, and to be protected from misuses, either by first parties or their partners. The NAI strongly supports a national privacy law that establishes strong, consistent consumer data protections across the country, and that sets a level playing field for all companies, regardless of their position in the marketplace.”

MEDIA CONTACT:
Patrick McConnell
media@networkadvertising.org
347-484-8820