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Privacy Policy

Updated November 4, 2021

The Network Advertising Initiative (“the NAI”) is a non-profit corporation and a trade association representing digital advertising companies (“Members”) committed to complying with responsible business and data management practices to help promote consumer privacy and trust in digital advertising.

The information provided below constitutes a general privacy policy that covers the NAI operations involving the collection, use, disclosure, and other processing of personal information on websites, when hosting events and managing relationships with the advertising community and public, when interacting with:

  • visitors to its websites (“Visitors”)
  • registered NAI members (“Members”)
  • a user of either the NAI Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out Tool or Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out Tool (“User”)
  • Individuals who register for our programming and events, or who request to receive information or resources (“Registrants”)
  • individuals outside the NAI involved in the public debate concerning digital advertising including members of the press, with whom the NAI may interact and whose personal information it processes (“Stakeholders”)

At the NAI we are committed to being clear and transparent about how we process personal information. We will not collect more personal information than is needed to accomplish the purposes described in this privacy policy, and will not retain any personal information collected longer than is necessary to fulfill those purposes.

Information pertaining to a device or an individual may be considered personal information in certain jurisdictions. As a part of the NAI’s commitment to transparency and consumer education we use the terms and definitions from the 2020 NAI Code of Conduct (“Code”) to help explain how we collect, use and share different types of personal information.


Terminology for Types of Data

Device Identified Information

Device-Identified Information (DII) is any data that is linked to a particular browser or device if that data is not used, or intended to be used, to directly identify a particular individual. DII may include, but is not limited to, unique identifiers associated with browsers or devices, such as cookie identifiers or advertising identifiers, and IP addresses, where such data is not linked or intended to be linked to PII. DII includes data that is linked to a series of browsers or devices linked through Cross-Device Linking, if that data is not used, or intended to be used, to directly identify a particular individual.

Personally Identified Information

Personally-Identified Information (PII) is any data linked, or intended to be linked, to an identified individual, including name, address, telephone number, email address, financial account number, and non-publicly available government-issued identifier.

Terminology for Types of Technology

Cookies

A cookie is information (a small text file) that a site saves to your web browser. Cookies enable customization of your web experiences. For example, a cookie may allow sites to recognize the same browser as it navigates through pages and content, when it visited, and whether it clicked on an ad. Cookies can help sites remember items in your shopping cart, your log-in name, or your high game scores. Cookies are typically exceedingly small (less than the size of a file containing a sentence or two) and take virtually no space on or slow down your browser.

Non-Cookie Technology

Non-Cookie Technology is a method for the collection and use of data for digital advertising often used in cases where a cookie cannot be placed on a user’s browser. These technologies often include browser cache, locally stored objects, or statistical identifiers. This technique is often employed because a browser’s settings currently have cookies blocked, either by default or by the user’s own choice. This method can take several different forms. Often it entails the creation of a statistical identifier wherein an identifier, much like a cookie identifier, is calculated based on the characteristics of a browser or device that distinguishes it from other browsers or devices. These identifiers are calculated either from the data your browser or device shares automatically or with additional data specifically requested from your browser or device.


What personal information do we collect:

From Visitors

  • We collect and store in server logs Device Identified Information, including but not limited to browser type, IP address, operating system, the date and time of visits, the pages visited on the site, time spent viewing the site, and return visits to the site.
  • We use Google Analytics, a service that records Device Identified Information such as the referral web domain, type of operating system/browser used, date and time of visit, and other information relating to activities on our website to understand its usage better, analyze trends, and optimize the website experience.
  • If Visitors provide us their Personally Identified Information such as contact information to submit a question, comment or complaint. Please note, you may choose not to disclose any Personally Identified Information to the NAI when submitting a question, comment, or complaint. However, we may be unable to respond or take appropriate action if some information is incomplete.

From Members

  • We maintain Member-only pages where NAI Members can access materials exclusive to membership.
  • We collect and store in server logs Device Identified Information, including but not limited to browser type, IP address, operating system, the date and time of visits, the pages visited on the site, time spent viewing the site, and return visits to the site.
  • We use Google Analytics, a service that records Device Identified Information such as the referral web domain, type of operating system/browser used, date and time of visit, and other information relating to activities on our website to understand its usage better, analyze trends, and optimize the website experience from.
  • If Members provide us their Personally Identified Information such as contact information to participate in working groups, submit a question or register for an event.

From User

  • If a User provides us their email address to access the NAI’s Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out Tool
  • We collect and store in server logs Device Identified Information, including but not limited to browser type, IP address, operating system, the date and time of visits, the pages visited on the site, time spent viewing the site, and return visits to the site.
  • We use Google Analytics, a service that records Device Identified Information such as the referral web domain, type of operating system/browser used, date and time of visit, and other information relating to activities on our website to understand its usage better, analyze trends, and optimize the website experience.
  • When a User engages the Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out Tool the User will choose to opt-out of some or all Members’ Interest Based Advertising. To effectuate the request, we allow Members to set an opt-out cookie and confirm a User’s opt out status.

From Registrants

  • If Registrants provide us their Personally Identified Information such as their name, professional affiliation, contact details, biographies, profile photographs, opt-ins/opt-outs for marketing and working group selections when they engage with us.
  • We may process travel itineraries and payment information for reimbursements if Registrants are a guest of or speaker for the NAI.
  • We may collect images of Registrants at our events.
  • We collect and store in server logs Device Identified Information, including but not limited to browser type, IP address, operating system, the date and time of visits, the pages visited on the site, time spent viewing the site, and return visits to the site.
  • We use Google Analytics, a service that records Device Identified Information such as the referral web domain, type of operating system/browser used, date and time of visit, and other information relating to activities on our website to understand its usage better, analyze trends, and optimize the website experience from.

From Stakeholders

  • If Stakeholders provide us their Personally Identified Information such as contact information to submit a question, comment or complaint.


How do we use personal information?

We aggregate Device Identified Information to better understand use of our site, and to help manage, maintain, enhance and improve our websites. We also store IP addresses for fraud detection and prevention purposes.

When Visitors, Members, Registrants or Stakeholders provide us their Personally Identified Information, such as contact information, we may use it to:

  • Communicate and respond to their inquiries and requests
  • Provide email updates
  • Register and manage events
  • Conduct surveys

When a User provides us their email address through the NAI’s Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out Tool the NAI will send an email to the address submitted by the User in order to authenticate the request and share the email address with participating Members for the sole purpose to exclude that email address from further use in Audience Matched Advertising. Please refer to individual Member company privacy policy or statement in the opt-out description for a full explanation of how a given company will effectuate the Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out. The NAI does not retain the email address submitted by Users of the Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out Tool for longer than 90 days. (Audience-Matched Advertising is defined in our Code is the practice of using data linked, or previously linked, to Personally-Identified Information for the purpose of tailoring advertising on one or more unaffiliated web domains or applications, or on devices, based on preferences or interests known or inferred from such data.)

When a User engages the Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out Tool the User will choose to opt-out of some or all of our Members’ Interest Based Advertising. To effectuate the request, we allow Members to set an opt-out cookie and confirm a User’s opt-out status. (Interest Based Advertising is defined in our Code is the collection of data across web domains owned or operated by different entities, or the use of such data, for the purpose of tailoring advertising based on preferences or interests known or inferred from the data collected.)

We do not merge any of the Personally Identified Information collected on our websites with Device Identified Information collected on a website.

Who Do We Share personal information with?

We do not rent, sell, share, or otherwise make available any Personally Identified Information or Device Identified Information collected on our websites with third parties for any advertising or marketing purposes.

We do share information with Service providers:

  • We may share Personally Identified Information or Device Identified Information with our service providers who need the information to perform services on the NAI’s behalf.
  • We also may disclose Personally Identified Information if required to do so by law, including by search warrant, subpoena, or court order.

We do share information with Members:

  • We may share Personally Identified Information submitted by Visitors or Users with our Members or other third parties to help resolve a complaint
  • We will share the email address submitted by a User of the Audience Matched Advertising Opt-Out Tool with our Members who are integrated with the Tool. Members elect whether they receive the plain-text email address or only a hashed version. Members are only permitted to use that email address or hashed email address to store the User’s choice to opt-out from Audience Matched Advertising, and may not use it for any other purposes, including advertising, marketing, or to contact a User.
  • We may share Personally Identified Information submitted by Visitors or Users with Members to administer an opt-out request


Technologies Used on This Site

Cookies

We use cookies on this site. If a Member logs in to the members area section of our site, we set a cookie with a randomly-generated pseudonymous identifier to allow the member to navigate those pages.

We also serve cookies to help us track web traffic, as described above on our websites.

In addition, our Members serve cookies via our website as part of the Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out Tool. To process the request of a User of the Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out our Members who engage in Interest Based Adverting must set an “opt-out cookie” on the User’s browser. Please note, if a User deletes any opt-out cookies obtained using the Interest Based Advertising Opt-Out Tool page, for example by clearing all cookies in their browser, the User will need to return to the opt-out page to renew your choices.

You have the ability to manage the use of cookies on your browser or device using control or preference settings. To learn more about how to manage cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Non-Cookie Technologies

Non-Cookie Technologies may also be used on this site. While the NAI itself does not use this technology for any advertising or marketing purposes, some of our members may use this technology for web-based Tailored Advertising purposes. As such, in order to fully effectuate a user’s decision to opt-out of Tailored Advertising, our site may employ this technology from our members in order to complete an opt-out request.

Third-Party Content, Links, and Plug-ins

This website contains links to other websites not owned or managed by the NAI. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those, or any other, websites. If you have questions about how those websites collect and use data, you should read their websites’ privacy policies.

Data Security

We use commercially reasonable procedures to protect the personal information that we collect. However, we cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that personal information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the internet.

The NAI is a U.S. organization that operates a co-regulatory program in the U.S. for U.S. consumers. Your personal information will be transferred to, processed, stored and accessed by us and our service providers in the U.S. and in any other jurisdiction where we or they operate, which may not provide you the same level of privacy protection as you are entitled to in your jurisdiction. By providing us with your information you acknowledge any such transfer, storage or use.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

As our organization, membership, and services evolve, this Privacy Policy may be revised to reflect those changes. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time, for any reason. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy in the future, we’ll post the changes here and indicate at the top of the page the last date on which it was updated. Unless otherwise noted, all changes will be effective when posted.

Questions?

You may contact us for any reason in connection with this Privacy Policy at help@networkadvertising.org.