The ‘Banning Surveillance Advertising Act’ Draws Support, Fire

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Three Democratic members of Congress last week submitted the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, which would prohibit advertisers from using personal data for targeted advertising, with some exceptions. Not surprisingly, the proposal has garnered fierce support and opposition.

The proposed bill would outlaw the use of personal data to target advertisements, with the exception of broad location targeting to a recognized place, such as a municipality. It would also prohibit advertisers from targeting ads based on “protected class information, such as race, gender, and religion, and personal data purchased from data brokers.” Contextual advertising, which is advertising based on the content a user is engaging with, would be allowed.

It’s all about eliminating the surveillance-based business model that has proliferated on the Internet, according to Congresswomen Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), who submitted the bill along with Congressman Dan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

“The ‘surveillance advertising’ business model is premised on the unseemly collection and hoarding of personal data to enable ad targeting,” Eshoo states in a press release on January 18, the day the co-sponsors introduced the bill. “This pernicious practice allows online platforms to chase user engagement at great cost to our society, and it fuels disinformation, discrimination, voter suppression, privacy abuses, and so many other harms. The surveillance advertising business model is broken.

Rep. Schakowsky stated that surveillance advertising “is at the heart of every exploitative online business model that exacerbates manipulation, discrimination, misinformation, extremism.” Sen. Booker, meanwhile, called it a “a predatory and invasive practice,” adding that the law would force advertisers to stop “exploiting individuals’ online behavior for profits and our communities will be safer as a result.”

If passed, the bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys to enforce the new ban on the use of surveillance advertising. Companies that violate the law could face fines up to $5,000 per incident, and private citizens could also sue companies for more.

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The reaction to the proposed bill was immediate, with some groups backing the plan as a way to bolster data privacy in an age of unpresented digital intrusions into our lives, while others saying that the proposed law would goes too far and would destroy digital commerce as we know it.

“It has become abundantly clear that Big Tech uses surveillance advertising to weaponize user data for profit, despite knowing the human and societal cost of those choices,” states Erica Darragh, a campaigner at a group called Fight for the Future, a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists. “This business model is an existential threat to human rights, public health, civil rights, and democracy.”

There is broad support for a ban on so-called surveillance advertising, according to the Ban Surveillance Advertising website, which counts several dozen groups as members, including the American Economic Liberties Project, the Center for Digital Democracy, and Demos. “This is not a partisan issue: 4-in-5 Americans support a ban on surveillance advertising,” the website reads.

Meanwhile, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, says the proposed bill would effectively abolish commerce on the Internet, which has grown into a substantial fraction of the country’s economy.

“If the sponsors understood the devastating effects this bill would have, not only on the advertising industry, but also on our entire economy, they wouldn’t have introduced it,” IAB CEO David Cohen stated in a press release. “Data-driven digital advertising is the heart of online commerce, representing an ever-increasing share of U.S. GDP.  It also drives the increasing diversity of products and services consumers rely on for information, education, entertainment and connectivity.”

Google, which has become one of the planets biggest advertisers, came out against a host of proposed bills and changes to law being considered by Congress, including the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act.

Kent Walker, the president of global affairs and chief legal officer for Google and parent company Alphabet, said in a blog post that the new laws could “break” Google Search, Maps, and Gmail, “making them less helpful and less secure, and damaging American competitiveness.”

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