Network Advertising Initiative Proposes New Mobile Privacy Rules

Moving forward with its plan to issue mobile privacy rules, the self-regulatory group Network Advertising Initiative this week provided members with a draft version of a code of conduct regarding information collected from apps.

The draft rules deal with behavioral targeting, or serving ads based on data collected across more than one app. The organization expects to finalize its Mobile Application Code by next month, according to NAI Executive Director Marc Groman. As with longstanding privacy rules for data collected from desktop units, the proposed mobile rules require companies to let people opt out of receiving behaviorally targeted ads on mobile devices. Even if people opt out, the proposed NAI code allows ad networks to continue to collect data “non-personally identifiable” data for some purposes, including analytics, ad optimization and frequency capping. The NAI says data connected to a particular device -- as opposed to a person -- is “non-personally identifiable.” But the NAI also proposes requiring companies to either discard that information, or else “de-identify” it (meaning that it's no longer linkable to particular devices), as soon as the data is no longer needed.