
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have introduced legislation that may alter digital advertising moving forward. Backed by Rep. Anna Eshoo, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Sen. Cory Booker, the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act aims to prohibit digital advertisers from targeting any ads to users. Exceptions will only be made for “broad” location based advertising and ads that are specifically matched to online content.
“The ‘surveillance advertising’ business model is premised on the unseemly collection and hoarding of personal data to enable ad targeting,” Eshoo stated, according to The Verge.
“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.”
The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act is the latest congressional effort to regulate the operations of large tech companies like Facebook and Google. Eshoo and her colleagues argue that this piece of legislation will limit the spread of damaging content and limit the gathering of personal data for “invasive” ad campaigns.
“Surveillance advertising is a predatory and invasive practice,” Booker added, according to The Verge.
“The hoarding of people’s personal data not only abuses privacy, but also drives the spread of misinformation, domestic extremism, racial division, and violence.”