The US-based Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) issued its Annual Report last week. Executive Director (and former FTC Chief Privacy Officer) Marc Groman gave a thought-provoking interview in Adweek describing the industry’s efforts and touting the organization’s success in building out the AdChoices program as part of its annual compliance report. Moving from advertising self-regulation to the broader issue of potential privacy legislation in the US and the EU, last week we heard from a new lobbying group, the Internet Association, which consists of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon. While the EU discussion continues full-tilt, the US debate seems to be steering away from any new privacy legislation. In the EU, the UK’s ICO came out very strongly against recent proposals for stricter controls in the upcoming revisions to the Data Protection Initiative Industry news was relatively light last week, but there was a fascinating incident that occurred.

For a brief moment on Thursday, Facebook broke sites that were using Facebook Connect and redirected people back toward Facebook.com instead of logging them into the service they were trying to access. While brief, it highlighted to us several important themes.  First, the importance of companies having a clear understanding of all the third-party technology employed on their websites. Second, it provided a brief display of just how big Facebook’s reach is. We will be sharing much more detail about Facebook’s reach in our upcoming Global Tracker Report which will be released in two weeks. Also, be sure to check out yesterday's Global Tracker Report blog post, "Traveling with Trackers". As always, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest privacy and industry news.   Ad Nets Step Up Self-Regulation – Adweek – NAI’s Groman hopes to turn around policymaker privacy perceptions

• Third-Party Online Advertising Community Demonstrates Strong Commitment to Consumer Transparency – Press Release – NAI Announces Member-Wide Compliance in its Annual Report and Launches New and Improved Consumer Education Resources around Interest-Based Ads

Internet, tech firms not too worried about privacy legislation – The Hill – Lobbyists for Internet and technology companies don't expect Congress to pass legislation protecting online privacy any time soon. Facebook to disclose targeted ads — you just have to know where to look – NBC – Facebook, under pressure to beef up privacy disclosures and transparency to users, will start letting users know when ads are targeted to them, although it may take a bit of work to find that out, and it doesn't apply to all ads on the site.

• Online Interest-Based Advertising Icon to Be Used on Facebook to Give Greater Transparency and Choice Regarding Targeted Ads - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Alert
• FTC Announces New Mobile Privacy Guidelines on Same Day Social Networking App Settles Privacy Charges – Davis & Gilbert Advertising Alert – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report containing specific recommendations on improving mobile privacy disclosures for mobile platforms, app developers, advertising networks, and other third parties.

Big Data at risk – The Field Fisher Waterhouse Privacy and Information Law Blog – “The amount of data in our world has been exploding, and analysing large data sets — so-called Big Data — will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation and consumer surplus”.  Not my words, but those of the McKinsey Global Institute (the business and economics research arm of McKinsey) in a report that evidences like no other the value of data for future economic growth.

ICO Commissioner slams EU data protection directive – Wired – UK Information Commissioners past and present have called the proposed changes to the European Data Protection Directive bad for business, and say it should -- in its current form -- be thrown out. Their announcement comes the same week market analysis firm Ovum released a survey revealing 68 percent of internet users would prefer their personal data to remain invisible.

Time for robust and independent enforcement – IAB UK – EU self-regulation for behavioural ads needs robust and independent enforcement, argues Nick Stringer, Director of Regulatory Affairs at the IAB UK.