Privacy/TPWG/Change Proposal Audience Measurement

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Audience Measurement Permitted Use

Proposal from Kathy Joe: email; issue-25

Open Questions

New text

Aggregated data collection and use for audience measurement research

Information may be collected, retained and used by a third party for audience measurement research where the information is used to calibrate, validate or calculate through data collected from opted-in panels, which in part contains information collected across sites and over time from user agents.

A third party eligible for an audience measurement research permitted use MUST adhere to the following restrictions. The data collected by the third party:

  • Must be pseudonymised before statistical analysis begins, such that unique key-coded data are used to distinguish one individual from another without identifying them, and
  • Must not be shared with any other party unless the data are de-identified prior to sharing, and
  • Must be deleted or de-identified as early as possible after the purpose of collection is met and in no case shall such retention, prior to de-identification, exceed 53 weeks and
  • Must not be used for any other independent purpose including changing an individual’s user experience or building a profile for ad targeting purposes.

Non-normative: collection and use for audience measurement research

Audience measurement research creates statistical measures of the reach in relation to the total online population, and frequency of exposure of the content to the online audience, including paid components of web pages.

Audience measurement research for DNT purposes originates with opt-in panel output that is calibrated by counting actual hits on tagged content on websites. The panel output is re-adjusted using data collected from a broader online audience in order to ensure data produced from the panel accurately represents the whole online audience. Aggregate results from the panel can also be applied to the hits counted for specific content to describe the general character of the audience for that content

This online data is collected on a first party and third party basis. This collection tracks the content accessed by a device rather than involving the collection of a user’s browser history. Audience measurement is centered around specific content, not around a user.

The collected data is retained for a given period for purposes of sample quality control, and auditing. During this retention period contractual measures must be in place to limit access to, and protect the data, as well as restrict the data from other uses. This retention period is set by auditing bodies, after which the data must be de-identified.

The purposes of audience measurement research must be limited to:

  • Facilitating online media valuation, planning and buying via accurate and reliable audience measurement.
  • Optimizing content and placement on an individual site.

The term “audience measurement research” does not include sales, promotional, or marketing activities directed at a specific computer or device. Audience measurement data must be reported as aggregated information such that no recipient is able to build commercial profiles about particular individuals or devices.

Parties conducting audience measurement might be subject to an independent certification process under the oversight of a generally-accepted market research industry organization that maintains a web platform providing user information about audience measurement research. This web platform lists the parties eligible to collect information under DNT standards and the audience measurement research permitted use and it provides users with an opportunity to exclude their data contribution.

This text would replace the audience measurement placeholder note in the editors' draft.

No Change Proposal

Withdrawn proposals

Audience Measurement with large buckets

Proposal form Rigo Wenning: email withdrawn per discussion

Add the following bullet to the list of normative clauses in Kathy Joe's proposal:

New Text

  • MUST NOT be aggregated into categories and buckets with less than 812

Members

Audience Measurement with Deidentified and Protocol Data

Proposal from Lee Tien: email

New text

A third party MAY use deidentified data for audience measurement. A third party MAY also use protocol information for audience measurement, subject to a two-week retention period.

This text would replace the audience measurement placeholder note in the editors' draft. See Change Proposal Short Term for definition of protocol information.