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Good morning, Marketers, and this is getting absurd

The Banning Surveillance Advertising bill introduced to the House of Representatives this week is worth reading. It’s not long. Take a peek: “An advertising facilitator may not target the dissemination of an advertisement; or knowingly enable an advertiser or a third party to target the dissemination of an advertisement, including by providing the advertiser or third party with (the) contact information of an individual.”

If that doesn’t have the effect, inadvertent or not, of banning targeting based on first-party data I wish someone would explain to me why not. What’s more, the text of the bill nowhere defines “advertising.” But it gets better.

Browsing for coverage of the bill, I came across this site that reflects support for the legislation from a whole bunch of action groups. And what’s that at the top of the page? Oh, it’s a form to fill out so they can target you with…ads? As I said, the bill doesn’t define what an ad is. With the additional result that, if passed, it would seem to ban any kind of targeted political advertising. Oops.

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Shorts 

What we’re reading. The “Global Digital Futurists Power List” published by Engatica. But we’re not agreeing with all of it. Sadella, yes; Zuckerberg, if you must — but Neal Stephenson, the sci-fi novelist at number four? Okay, he came up with the term “metaverse” 30 years ago. He beats Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, who is in the number five slot, despite the prospect of Epic Games playing a major practical role in the metaverse (once it’s open for business).