Re: Remove profiling prohibition for frequency capping (ISSUE-236)

We are not reopening a discussion on whether there will be a permitted use for frequency capping. That has been stable in the TCS for years. Anyone who wanted to remove such a permitted use could have opened an issue on this at any time up to October of last year; no one did.

This issue raised by Jack is an editorial one. The frequency capping rules are already subject to the Data Minimization and No Personalization language in Sections 3.3.1.3 and 3.3.1.4; Jack has made the argument that the last sentence in the frequency capping paragraph is thus superfluous.

Companies retaining data for frequency capping alone can only collect and use the data minimally necessary for that purpose, and cannot use that data for secondary purposes. There is no basis for retaining web browsing history for frequency capping (unless a cap is tied to showing a number of ads on a particular site), and companies will not be able to target ads based on the nature of frequently shown ads. However, keep in mind that companies are likely to retain web browsing history despite a DNT:1 setting for other purposes, including attribution and fraud prevention. Of the permitted uses, I would think frequency capping would be the least concerning to advocates.

On Sep 11, 2014, at 9:58 AM, Jeffrey Chester <jeff@democraticmedia.org> wrote:

> Thanks for reminding me that in-flight and associated ad changes are labeled as OBA/data driven targeting.  I believe this debate is a useful one, because frequency capping needs to be vetted taking into consideration EU and other data protection policies.
> 
> 
> Jeffrey Chester
> Center for Digital Democracy
> 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 550
> Washington, DC 20009
> www.democraticmedia.org
> www.digitalads.org
> 202-986-2220
> 
> On Sep 11, 2014, at 6:53 AM, Shane M Wiley <wileys@yahoo-inc.com> wrote:
> 
>> Jeff,
>> 
>> We agreed as a group that any "in flight" changes were deemed behavioral targeting, not frequency capping, so we already removed that use case from consideration (such as sequential ads) at the Oct 2013 Sunnyvale meeting.  The use case here is the most simple one imaginable -- not showing the same user the same ad more than X times in a Y given time frame - nothing more.
>> 
>> - Shane
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeffrey Chester [mailto:jeff@democraticmedia.org] 
>> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 3:50 AM
>> To: Shane M Wiley
>> Cc: Walter van Holst; public-tracking@w3.org
>> Subject: Re: Remove profiling prohibition for frequency capping (ISSUE-236)
>> 
>> Walter is correct. In addition, Frequency capping is now also connected to real-time "in-flight" changes to targeted personalized campaigns. In-flight is ad biz term for such ad technique changes done during a campaign, which can also involve "creative versioning," that is new campaign dynamic elements that reflect how a person is responding. Capping connected to these and similar changes to a users experience should not be permitted under DNT:1
>> 
>> Jeff
>> 
>> Jeff Chester
>> Center for Digital Democracy
>> Washington DC
>> www.democraticmedia.org
>> Jeff@democraticmedia.org
>> 
>>> On Sep 11, 2014, at 6:38 AM, Shane M Wiley <wileys@yahoo-inc.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Walter,
>>> 
>>> Then we disagree on the merits here.  Removing frequency-capping will have fairly negative repercussions on users seeing the same ads over-and-over-and-over driving them to turn off DNT.  The group on both sides agreed to this carve-out long ago due to the perverse disincentives created in this scenario (I believe only 2 or 3 people out of ~70 ever had an issue here).  Your technical solution is simply unworkable.  Looking forward to the Call for Objections.
>>> 
>>> - Shane
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Walter van Holst [mailto:walter.van.holst@xs4all.nl]
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 3:30 AM
>>> To: public-tracking@w3.org
>>> Subject: RE: Remove profiling prohibition for frequency capping 
>>> (ISSUE-236)
>>> 
>>>> On 2014-09-11 12:18, Shane M Wiley wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> We've always agreed the frequency-capping would be a permitted use in 
>>>> situations where a DNT=1 is received.  Are you suggesting we now 
>>>> remove that permitted use or are you simply commenting on this 
>>>> specific language?
>>> 
>>> I am perfectly fine with frequency-capping, as long as it doesn't 
>>> require profiling at an individual level. It cannot result in 
>>> collection of data by a third-party if the UA is setting a DNT:1 flag. 
>>> The mere fact that this particular purpose of tracking is beneficial 
>>> both to the user and the advertiser does not justify in itself an 
>>> override of a
>>> DNT:1 preference. And I can think of several methods to prevent saturation of a particular user with a particular ad, for example progressively dropping least-significant bits of IP-addresses to mask out groups of users that an ad should not be shown to.
>>> 
>>> I do not recall a broad consensus about this particular permitted use.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Walter
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>