Dive Brief:
- The FCC asked for public comments on its recent broadband privacy proposal and the public responded. Where the cross-device tracking workshop from last year generated 47 comments, the broadband privacy proposal received 53,085 comments.
- Ad Exchanger highlighted a comment that represented the general attitude toward online privacy: Rick from Arizona shared, “There's already too much theft of my personal information from internet advertising, etc. and it must be STOPPED.”
- This demonstration of public sentiment around digital advertising should serve as one more wake up call for the industry as to why ad block tech is becoming increasingly popular.
Dive Insight:
Another large contributor to the comments were from industry organizations like the IAB and DMA which both opposed the FCC’s overreach in taking over regulatory authority from the FTC, but overall most of the commentary came from individual consumers.
FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly, who dissented in the original vote on the privacy proposal, said, “Unlike government entities using the information to potentially threaten or undo the freedom of individuals, the high crime and misdemeanor at issue here is the ultimate desire of some to want to market commercial products to others. Simply put, they want to try to sell you something that you may actually enjoy purchasing. It’s as if we’ve all forgotten how the internet economy actually works – there is a trade-off.”
The public’s response to the proposal clearly indicates the digital ad industry is failing to provide a user experience that people are happy with. The solution isn’t clear, and more regulation might not be the answer, but marketers, publishers and ad tech players all need to find out how to maintain an important source of revenue while making sure the end user is well served by the entire process.
