Democratic lawmakers unveil the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, which would ban targeted ads but allow broad location-based and contextual ads

It could reshape the entire tech industry — On Tuesday, Democrats introduced a new bill that would ban nearly all use …

The Verge 2022-01-19 Makena Kelly

Context & Ripple Effects

The proposal follows a consumer and civil-rights coalition’s call to ban surveillance-based advertising, while Democratic lawmakers had also sought to make major platforms disclose ad-targeting data to researchers and the FTC through the Social Media DATA Act. It puts a sharper policy boundary around which ad formats may continue: broad location-based and contextual placement rather than individualized targeting.

First-order effects

The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act gives Democratic lawmakers a concrete prohibition to advance, defining targeted advertising as the practice at issue while preserving broader location and contextual formats.
Ad-supported platforms and advertisers would need to distinguish targeted campaigns from permitted contextual and broad location-based inventory if the bill became law.

Second-order effects

The bill would shift the policy debate from transparency around targeting data toward whether targeting itself should be permitted, making the earlier disclosure-focused approach less central.
Publishers and ad-tech firms with contextual inventory would have a clearer route to serve ads without the targeted-ad model the proposal seeks to prohibit.

Third-order effects

If this approach gains legislative support, US ad-policy proposals may increasingly regulate data use by limiting advertising methods rather than relying only on consumer notice, opt-outs, or research access.
The parallel push to restrict large firms from operating across multiple ad-tech functions suggests a broader effort to reshape both the data inputs and market structure behind digital advertising.

The trend: US lawmakers are moving from oversight of ad-targeting data toward rules that constrain targeted advertising and the digital-ad ecosystem itself.

Discussion

@dmarti Don Marti on x
@josephfcox Read the bill, though. Advertisers can still dump your purchases and other activity to FB/G for targeting, as long as they “attest” they aren't revealing “protected class” info about you. A partial ban at best, and does not address riskiest/least accepted surveillance…
@josephfcox Joseph Cox on x
New: lawmakers have proposed a new piece of legislation called the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act which aims to do just that. Not only ban targeted advertising based on race, gender, religion, etc, but underlying targeted advertising in general https://www.vice.com/...
@carissaveliz @carissaveliz on x
I am one of the academics who supports @RepAnnaEshoo's bill. #Surveillance #advertising is a predatory and toxic business model that should've been outlawed long ago. It has led to discrimination, voter suppression, polarization, and more. 1/ @asad09 https://www.theverge.com/...
@can @can on x
My hope is that we will look back at the current state of the internet, funded solely by adtech, like when we used asbestos for insulation, lead for toys, and land mines for defense.
@adamkovac Adam Kovacevich on x
Every been browsing FB or IG, see an ad for an interesting new product based on your interests, and then buy it direct from a retailer (through Shopify)? Under this bill none of that would be possible. Targeted ads make e-commerce work. https://twitter.com/...
@duckduckgo @duckduckgo on x
The collection of your private data to target you w/ads violates your privacy & leads to discrimination, manipulation, & disinformation. That's why we don't track you & why we support the Banning Surveillance Acts Act, introduced today by @RepAnnaEshoo: https://eshoo.house.gov/..…
@repgosar Rep. Paul Gosar on x
Big Tech and the Biden Administration continue to collude, unconstitutionally censoring lawful political speech. I support Section 230 reform and President Trump's lawsuit against Big Tech on behalf of censored Americans citizens.
@fightfortheftr @fightfortheftr on x
Good news: today, Democrats introduced a new bill that would ban nearly all use of digital advertising targeting on ad markets hosted by platforms like Facebook, Google, and other data brokers. #BanSurveillanceAdvertising https://www.theverge.com/...
@samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x
a federal ban on surveillance advertising sounds like an extremely radical long shot but I think the only people who would genuinely oppose it are the relatively small sliver of the population who make their money conducting the surveillance
@motherboard @motherboard on x
The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, introduced by Reps. Anna G. Eshoo of California and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, aims to do exactly that. https://www.vice.com/...
@samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x
I have no idea what this bill's odds are, I would guess low because it will be branded anti-business communism, but if it goes anywhere get ready for a barrage of “this will literally murder small business owners” propaganda from FB/Google/et al
@caitrionafitz Caitriona Fitzgerald on x
Today, @RepAnnaEshoo, @janschakowsky & @SenBooker have introduced a bill to ban surveillance advertising! This is what we need to do - disrupt the toxic business models that are leading to discrimination, disinformation, and commodification of our personal data. #privacy https://…
@wolfiechristl @wolfiechristl on x
However, skimming over the text I'm afraid @dmarti may be right here? https://twitter.com/...
@dmarti Don Marti on x
@resilien7 @josephfcox FB Conversions API is a current example — would be totally unaffected by this bill as long as the advertiser supplied an attestation that they're not transferring data on membership in a protected class https://digiday.com/...
@hypervisible @hypervisible on x
Now we're talking. https://www.theverge.com/...
@neil_chilson Neil Chilson on x
This bill is DOA but reveals a deep antipathy to commerce & advertising - and free markets. It shares ideological DNA with Zuboff's “Surveillance Capitalism,” which, as @Jim_Harper & I recently wrote, buries 3 real concerns under bombastic invective. https://fee.org/... https://t…
@accountabletech @accountabletech on x
Big Tech's toxic business model of surveillance advertising has eroded our consensus reality and pushed democracy to the brink. Join us in urging Congress to pass the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act: https://www.bansurveillanceadvertising. com/
@dmarti Don Marti on x
@resilien7 @josephfcox Right, $FB (mostly) doesn't transfer personal data outward. Advertisers feed in their customer PII and then get reports on how their ads did
@jfelixcardoso @jfelixcardoso on x
Huge news. In the European Parliament, MEPs have a chance to tackle this problem this week https://twitter.com/...
@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
This is nonsense word salad. How does behaviorally-targeted advertising result in “disinformation, discrimination, voter suppression”? https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@repannaeshoo Rep. Anna G. Eshoo on x
Surveillance advertising is a pernicious practice fueling disinformation, discrimination, voter suppression, and privacy abuses. The model is broken, and it's time we ban it. I introduced a bill to do just that with @CoryBooker, @janschakowsky. https://eshoo.house.gov/...
@leshann @leshann on x
Curious if this'll pass, but definitely a warning for the ad industry. https://www.theverge.com/...
@samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x
I'm still reading the bill text but the idea of banning ad surveillance is orders of magnitude more significant than any of the wishy washy We Can Reform Facebook! proposals you've seen in recent years, in terms of privacy and countering the power of big tech
@katielmcinnis Katie McInnis on x
In addition to supporting competition reform bills, @DuckDuckGo also supports a bill banning surveillance advertising from @RepAnnaEshoo , which would help protect folks' privacy & push companies to adopt a privacy-protective ad model. https://eshoo.house.gov/...
@thezedwards @thezedwards on x
🚨Breaking!⚖️ A comprehensive bill is being introduced in the U.S. House & Senate that would fundamentally change how advertising data supply chains work + create new opportunities for innovation on the internet while protecting consumer privacy. Contextual *only* is the future. h…
@resilien7 Calvin Huang on x
@dmarti @josephfcox Hrm... §2(a) prohibits FB from providing identifying info to advertisers, but I guess it doesn't actually prohibit advertisers sending FB ID info for targeting?
@kylebrussell Kyle Russell on x
A massive subsidy to geography/interest-based publications https://twitter.com/...
@seyitaylor @seyitaylor on x
this is quite literally the very dumbest shit I've ever seen in my life and I've seen a lot of dumb shit. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@can @can on x
The fact that we can say “behavioral targeting is immoral” and “ban surveillance advertising” on a national platform feels like a monumental step forward. It's a matter of time. https://www.theverge.com/...
@ne0liberal @ne0liberal on x
Targeted advertising is actually good, I'd prefer to get ads for weird globalist books than pickup trucks or whatever the default is. And targeted advertising is the engine that powers so much free content on the web. The alternative is increasing paywalls and substack-ization. h…

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