Privacy Review Program

Privacy Review Program

Annual participation in the NAI’s Privacy Review Program (the “Program”) is one of the benefits of NAI membership. The Program helps NAI members maintain high privacy standards, understand their legal obligations, and implement privacy standards that chart a pathway to compliance with current laws. The Program also gives NAI members the opportunity to contribute to the development of new guidance and best practices as the privacy compliance landscape evolves in the U.S. 

All NAI members agree to participate in these annual reviews. The Program will focus on two main elements:

1. Confirming that members have adequate processes in place to adhere to the NAI Principles.
2. Bolster members’ compliance posture by discussing how voluntary standards, guidance, and best practices promulgated by the NAI relate to the member’s business, as well as providing context for how meeting those best practices can facilitate compliance with privacy law requirements.

The NAI does not provide legal advice to any member company.

Benefits for Members

NAI members realize multiple benefits through participation in this program, including confirmation that they have key processes in place that will support their ability to operate a robust privacy program, and familiarization with industry best practices for processing consumer data and addressing relevant privacy law requirements in the U.S.

Program Steps

The Privacy Review Program begins with each member responding to an NAI questionnaire, which elicits baseline information to help NAI staff determine the technologies, products, and services the member utilizes for Network Advertising; as well the location of key information such as the member’s privacy policy(ies) and applicable consumer choice mechanisms.

Once a member completes the questionnaire, they meet with NAI staff for an annual interview to discuss the questionnaire responses, industry best practices, technologies, and observations. This information exchange provides the NAI with a panoramic view of the compliance challenges facing companies in various parts of the digital advertising ecosystem. It also allows the NAI to share aggregate insights, suggest potential solutions to specific problems, and identify topics that are ripe for additional industry guidance, best practices, or public policy outreach. The NAI will highlight aggregated trends and practices through its reports and working groups, which can assist companies in evaluating their approach to privacy compliance.

Accountability

As more U.S. states pass comprehensive consumer privacy laws, the NAI is adopting a different approach to self-regulation for Network Advertising that better aligns with new and emerging legal requirements in the United States. Publicly committing to adhere to the Principles and undergoing the process of annual NAI privacy reviews to confirm adherence still demonstrates a level of accountability. However, the focus of NAI’s Privacy Review Program is shifting toward helping companies understand industry best practices for privacy and how they relate to state privacy law requirements in the US, not requiring compliance with a separate and prescriptive set of NAI requirements. We believe this level of attention to and engagement with high standards and the completion of an annual review with the NAI staff show a high level of commitment to privacy that will help companies stand apart from others in the industry.

As the NAI does not act as its members’ legal counsel, NAI staff is not in a position to, and does not intend to, determine whether a member is meeting its legal obligations or to enforce those obligations. Nonetheless, if the NAI finds that a member is not meeting one of its high-level Principles and the member is unwilling or unable to put necessary processes in place to remedy the problem, or the member refuses to engage in the NAI’s annual Privacy Review Program altogether, the NAI reserves the right to terminate that company’s membership agreement.