Cookie deadline sees AdChoices Icon rolled out in Ireland

Crimtan moves early to comply with EU Framework for OBA.

The revised ePrivacy Directive1, places obligations on companies using cookies and other tracking devices. In response, the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) has proposed Best Practice Recommendation (BPR), for a European industry-wide self-regulatory standard in Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA). It provides a comprehensive self-regulatory solution for OBA, which complements IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Europe’s Online Behavioural Advertising Framework and establishes an industry-wide standard. Signatory companies have committed become compliant by 30 June, 2012.

A fundamental part of the BPR is the adoption of the AdChoices icon on all advertising and Crimtan has announced it will carry it on all advertising with immediate effect. It joins the big four of Google, Yahoo Microsoft and AOL as the first Irish-based ad networks to use the icon on all ads before the deadline.

The EU self-regulatory initiative for online behavioural advertising aims to accomplish three key things:

  1. Provide transparency to consumers about advertising that is using data for online behavioural advertising purposes, or is collecting data that could be used for this purpose in the future;
  2. Give consumers control about the collection and use of that data; and
  3. Educate consumers about how online behavioural advertising works and how and for what purposes their data is being collected or used.

Signatories to the EU self-regulatory initiative agree they should offer users more accessible notice about the data that is used to deliver advertising and give users control over this data. The AdChoices icon is intended to give users a easily accessible and straightforward explanation about how their data is used in the advertising they see online.

Daniel Cooney, Country Manager of Crimtan, said: “Crimtan has been on the IAB Committee that produced the EU Framework for OBA since the first meeting three years ago. We are fully committed to the goals of the cross-industry effort, and has implemented the AdChoices icon as part of its compliance with the programme’s requirements. More importantly, icon-based notices on ads promote user confidence, and demonstrate the industry’s commitment to consumer transparency and control. Crimtan is proud to be the first company in Ireland to use the icon on all its advertising.”

1 The 2003 Regulations implemented a European Directive – 2002/58/EC – which is concerned with the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. In 2009 this Directive was amended by Directive 2009/136/EC. This included a change to Article 5(3) of the E-Privacy Directive requiring consent for storage or access to information stored on a subscriber or users terminal equipment – in other words a requirement to obtain consent for cookies and similar technologies. Governments in Europe had until 25 May 2011 to implement these changes into their own law.

About the EASA

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) is the single authoritative voice on advertising self regulation issues and promotes high ethical standards in commercial communications by means of effective self-regulation, while being mindful of national differences of culture, legal and commercial practice. These standards are promoted, for example, via EASA’s Advertising Self-Regulatory Charter and EASA’s Best Practice Recommendations.

As a non-profit organisation based in Brussels, it brings together 34 (of which 26 in Europe) national advertising self-regulatory organisations (SROs) and 16 organisations representing the advertising industry (advertisers, agencies, the various forms of traditional and digital interactive media (including IAB Europe) in Europe and beyond.