Advocates Seek FTC Rulemaking to Ban Targeted Advertising

The FTC should issue a rule banning “surveillance advertising” as an “unfair method of competition,” Accountable Tech said in a petition filed with the agency Monday. The FTC voted in September to allow the public to petition the agency to issue rulemakings (see 2109150061). Comments on the Accountable Tech petition are due Jan. 26. Accountable Tech cited what it called the anticompetitive practices of platforms like Google, Facebook and Amazon involving targeted advertising. These “giants” have grown “lucrative empires by tracking users” across platforms and third-parties and are “building comprehensive data profiles in order to micro-target audiences with more and more invasive ads,” the filing said. Dominant companies can “unfairly extract and monetize more user data, unfairly integrate that data across business lines and actively suppress competition,” the filing said. Digital ads are a major reason consumers are able to access free online content, emailed Hinch Newman's Richard Newman: “Overly broad restrictions on customized advertising could potentially act as a sledgehammer that both deprives consumers of meaningful choices as well as the ability to access a broad range of online content.” The companies didn’t comment. The agency declined to comment.