Frequently asked questions

1. Explain Evidon's two endorsements. What did you actually win in the industry RFP process?
2. Is Evidon an "advertising company"?
3. What is the difference between what do you and Ad Verification?
4. Privacy compliance seems to be more of a public service. Are you a non-profit?
5. Is the government-proposed "do not track" mechanism necessary?
6. Can't I just license the icon and comply myself?
7. Explain your relationship with Ghostery.

1. Explain Evidon's two endorsements. What did you actually win in the industry RFP process?

There are two different endorsements that relate to two different solutions we've created:

The Digital Advertising Alliance announced its official formation to implement the Self-Regulatory Principles on October 4, 2010. As part of that effort, The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association have announced that they intend to use Evdion technology - what we've been calling our INDUSTRY COMPLIANCE PLATFORM - to monitor and report on the industry's compliance with the Principles (on which the accountability program is based). This is what we won - we were selected as a result of the six-way competition of businesses vying to supply this technology. The companies competing included DoubleVerify, TRUSTe, and Datran's Preference Central.

The compliance platform is not something we're selling to clients; it's something we'll be providing to the CBBB and the DMA to support the program. Note that this does not make us the enforcer of the program, only the technology provider that powers it. It's a completely separate set of technologies from the Assurance Platform - Evidon InForm™ - we sell to clients.

On the same day it announced its own formation, the DAA endorsed our ASSURANCE PLATFORM (what we now call Evidon InForm) as an approved technology and standard method for companies to provide evidence of compliance with the self-regulatory Principles.

2. Is Evidon an "advertising company"?

No. We've created a new type of company and platform - the Assurance Platform (Evidon InForm) - to solve the particular issue of compliance with the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. The non-personal information we collect is used strictly to provide more comprehensive privacy services to consumers and businesses. We don't use consumer data from any of our services to target or deliver ads. Please visit our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for a complete description of our practices.

3. What is the difference between what do you and Ad Verification?

Evidon is the only company built from the ground up specifically in response to the FTC's mandate that companies engaged in OBA provide consumers with transparency into and control over how their data is collected and used. Every ad that is collecting or using OBA needs to have the Icon in it. Ad Verification serves a different market need altogether. It has no connection to consumer privacy. It is also not a requirement from the FTC or any DAA-member association. Verification enables advertisers to know if their ads are running where they paid for them to run, and if they are running in "brand safe" environments (e.g. not on porn, hate, in foreign countries, etc.). These two services are very different in the eyes of consumers, regulators and the industry.

4. Privacy compliance seems to be more of a public service. Are you a non-profit?

No, Evidon is a for-profit business, as are many other companies in other parts of the privacy space.

5. Is the government-proposed "do not track" mechanism necessary?

We agree with the FTC that the market needs to do a better job of empowering consumers with more transparency into, and control over advertising. The industry needs to adhere to best practices that were prescribed clearly by the FTC in its Self-Regulatory Principals for Online Behavioral Advertising. But, doing so does not extend to the creation of an internet-advertising version of the Do Not Call list.

Evidon, along with the leading industry trade associations, advertising agencies, advertisers and other key companies, is deploying exactly the system that the Federal Trade Commission has called for. Already, billions of online ads carry the " Ad Choices" icon. This enables a consumer to opt out of being targeted by the companies involved in that particular ad, or to visit the DAA's website where they can opt out from a growing list of companies who enable behavioral advertising. We've also created the Open Data Partnership, through which businesses are disclosing not just that an ad is based on the consumer's anonymous behavior, but also what criteria were used to direct that ad to the consumer, and giving the consumer the ability to edit those criteria.

Individual lapses are inexcusable, but painting the entire industry with a brush of failure misses the point. Rather, the FTC has the authority it needs, as it stated in its report last week, to act if a company is deceptive in its business practices. The inclusion of these opt-out options in every relevant online advertisement and on every website where these data are collected has to be the norm, and it is well on its way to becoming just that.

6. Can't I just license the icon and comply myself?

While there is no requirement that a company must work with Evidon, just licensing the icon and creating your own notice experience for your own company has several drawbacks:

1. Technologically complex: Trying to coordinate notice delivery across the multiple parties involved in an ad transaction, populate notice with accurate, comprehensive information from myriad sources, at scale, etc. - let alone provide a service that can vouch for 3rd party's compliance with the Principles - is an extremely complex thing to pull off technologically. We've spent over 2 years building our company for this particular purpose, and we're operating at scale, serving notice to billions of impressions each month.
2. For you alone: you're free to deploy your own icon, but in order to provide an assurance platform that would serve notice on behalf of third parties and provide evidence of compliance with the Principles by those third parties, you'd have to apply to the DAA to become an approved provider of those services.

Evidon InForm is the first technology endorsed by the DAA as a standard method for companies to demonstrate their compliance with the self-regulatory Principles.

Best of breed: In addition to being the first company endorsed and approved to provide these services, Evidon clients get access to our consumer research, Evidon InLight insights, and more.

7. Explain your relationship with Ghostery.

Ghostery is the same service it used to be, only better, because now it has the resources of a substantial company to develop even better capabilities for helping consumers discover and control the entities that track them across the web. Moreover, Evidon is not an advertising company; we're an assurance company built to facilitate compliance with OBA regulations. Ghostery's founder, David Cancel, is a shareholder in, and advisor to, Evidon.