Ad Industry Charts Path Forward on Addressability: Pram Transitions AMI Oversight to DAA, Individual Ad Trades Will Lead on Non-AMI Approaches

PRAM Winds Down Operations Following Release of Policy Framework for AMIs

The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) announced the conclusion of its work and the transition of the process for certification, education, and enforcement around Addressable Media Identifiers (AMIs) to the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), which will extend and enhance its current self-regulatory program to cover those emerging technologies.

In addition, the advertising trade associations will continue to conduct their own evaluation, direct dialogue, and industry education around alternate non-AMI approaches that seek to provide similar advertising and operations functionality, such as device-based cohorts, on-device processing, context-based ads, and emerging privacy-enhancing technologies.

To conclude its work, PRAM released an initial Policy Framework for Addressable Media Identifiers (AMIs) designed to ensure they continue to safeguard consumer privacy; provide meaningful choices to consumers, publishers, agencies, and advertisers; and maintain critical functionality for the digital medium. Following the release, PRAM will wind down its operations and move the process for further refinement, interpretation, and operationalization of the Framework.

Developed by PRAM’s Privacy, Policy, and Legal Working Group, the initial AMI Policy Framework sets limitations on the permitted uses for AMIs, while prohibiting the use of specific categories of sensitive data with the AMI. In addition, the Framework enables advertisers and other stakeholders to select audiences that are made up exclusively of consumers who have provided “opt-in” consent to receive online behavioral advertising, as such technologies mature. This flexible approach will allow advertisers to meet the widely varying legal and regulatory requirements for different jurisdictions, as well as adopting custom standards that meet their business needs.

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“PRAM was created by the industry to help chart the future of addressability by evaluating a portfolio of potential AMI and non-AMI solutions, opening direct dialogue with major players around proposed solutions, establishing a compendium of business use cases, and developing enforceable policy standards for future addressable media identifiers, and we are delighted to release a comprehensive policy framework that moves toward that final step,” said Bill Tucker, PRAM’s Executive Director. “To ensure the AMI policy is fully operationalized in the most seamless and effective way, PRAM will transition all future oversight and enforcement around the AMI Policy Framework to the Digital Advertising Alliance, the industry’s leading self-regulatory organization for these types of initiatives. The DAA will build a rigorous certification program that ensures the policy framework is backed up with strong compliance.”

“The PRAM Policy Framework is the result of considerable work by stakeholders across the industry to strengthen consumer protections while ensuring future identifiers can continue to provide core functionality for the digital medium,” said Stu Ingis, chairman of Venable LLP, who directed PRAM’s Privacy, Policy, and Legal Working Group. “This framework encourages innovation and competition in digital advertising and the content and services it funds, and it sets strong baseline standards for the use of AMI-based data. We are grateful to all of the participants in this process for their leadership and collaboration, and we are looking forward to collaborating with many other key stakeholders in this vital effort.”

For more than ten years, the Digital Advertising Alliance has managed the digital advertising industry’s Self-Regulatory Program around interest-based advertising, including its centerpiece YourAdChoices program, which provides consumers with convenient access to information and control over the types of advertising they receive.

“Now that PRAM has completed its AMI policy work, the DAA is the natural home for the go-forward management of the AMI program, given its deep expertise and cross-industry collaboration around these issues,” said Lou Mastria, Executive Director of the DAA. “DAA programs have kept pace with rapid technological and industry changes for more than a decade, including mobile, cross-device, video, and political advertising, and we are pleased to extend those efforts to cover the emerging space of addressable media identifiers.”

The application and review process for AMI certification will managed by the DAA, and associated trades will collaborate on accountability and enforcement of the Framework. The DAA intends to work with stakeholders as it further develops and interprets the Framework, and to launch a broad public education campaign to inform consumers, companies, policymakers, and the media about the choices and protections offered through this new approach. Following the transition of the AMI Framework into the DAA during Q1 2022, PRAM will wind down its operations.

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