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I've been thinking this for a while: would it be feasible to create a labelling body for online advertising and privacy? I see it a bit like Fairtrade or FSC c

I've been thinking this for a while: would it be feasible to create a labelling body for online advertising and privacy? I see it a bit like Fairtrade or FSC certified, but for advertising and tracking - an independently verified set of criteria which must be met to be awarded the standard. As an independent body, it wouldn't have the conflict of interest of, say Eyeo/ABP. And unlike offline standards agencies which rely on self-certification and occasional inspections, the testing would be done at the browser plugin level to filter out any scripts and ads which don't meet the standard. A combination of marketing to end-users as to the benefits of ethical advertising, and real-time feedback to site owners and advertisers as to which ads were blocked, why they were blocked and how much money that cost them could be a powerful incentive to clean things up.

WilliamOfRolez 11y ago
There is a non-profit association that is in charge of building standards and regulating (as much as possible) online ads. It's called Interactive Advertising Bureau (http://www.iab.com http://www.iab.com) and they are described as : "The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents a large number of the most prominent media outlets globally, but mostly in the United States and in Europe." Their cause is great and they have been establishing solid foundations but the very description shows it's limit: "mostly in the United States and in Europe". The shady ad networks are usually registered and host their content in none of those regions which means they are free of any standards and there isn't much the IAB can do about it.
xorcist 11y ago
> testing would be done at the browser plugin level to filter out any scripts and ads which don't meet the standard I think you are describing pretty much any ad block plugin. If you serve ads from your own domain with an img tag, they don't be blocked. It's just that very few people do that.
- mattkevan 11y ago
  Yeah, technically it wouldn't be all that different - but the user-facing side would. If a site met a particular level of privacy, the relevant badge would be displayed - sort of like a SSL padlock - as a reassurance that the site was trustworthy. Or a bit like, cheesy though they are, those valid HTML/CSS buttons. Ten years ago there was a big push for web standards, vaguely defined though some of them were, and from that it's now unthinkable to build a site which isn't standards-based. We need a similar push for tracking and advertising. Like the web standards movement, which wasn't led by browser makers or website owners, but by developers and designers who realised things couldn't continue, the ad-tech and publishing industries are not going to be able to do this themselves, but need pressure from outside.

WilliamOfRolez 11y ago

There is a non-profit association that is in charge of building standards and regulating (as much as possible) online ads. It's called Interactive Advertising Bureau (http://www.iab.com http://www.iab.com) and they are described as : "The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents a large number of the most prominent media outlets globally, but mostly in the United States and in Europe." Their cause is great and they have been establishing solid foundations but the very description shows it's limit: "mostly in the United States and in Europe". The shady ad networks are usually registered and host their content in none of those regions which means they are free of any standards and there isn't much the IAB can do about it.

xorcist 11y ago

> testing would be done at the browser plugin level to filter out any scripts and ads which don't meet the standard I think you are describing pretty much any ad block plugin. If you serve ads from your own domain with an img tag, they don't be blocked. It's just that very few people do that.

mattkevan 11y ago
Yeah, technically it wouldn't be all that different - but the user-facing side would. If a site met a particular level of privacy, the relevant badge would be displayed - sort of like a SSL padlock - as a reassurance that the site was trustworthy. Or a bit like, cheesy though they are, those valid HTML/CSS buttons. Ten years ago there was a big push for web standards, vaguely defined though some of them were, and from that it's now unthinkable to build a site which isn't standards-based. We need a similar push for tracking and advertising. Like the web standards movement, which wasn't led by browser makers or website owners, but by developers and designers who realised things couldn't continue, the ad-tech and publishing industries are not going to be able to do this themselves, but need pressure from outside.