Center for Industry
Self-Regulation
Harnessing the Power of Self-Regulation to Empower Business Accountability
For Funders
Our research explores how to solve collective challenges in the business community, calling on decades of experience operating independent self-regulatory and co-regulatory programs.
For Business
Learn about the challenges facing your industry to help identify opportunities for new best practices that will enhance the trust and respect of consumers, partners, and regulators.
In the Incubator
TeenAge Privacy Program (TAPP)
The TAPP Incubator project has designed safeguards for the personal data of teens, building a bridge between privacy protections for children and adults that can serve as a global model. The TAPP Roadmap is an operational framework designed to help companies develop digital products and services that consider and respond to the heightened potential of risks and harms to teenage consumers and to ensure that businesses collect and manage teen data responsibly. Get the RoadmapAI in Hiring and Recruiting
In the recruiting and hiring process, where algorithms increasingly provide an aid to human decision making, how can we combine important technological innovation with a proactive approach to employment law regulations and future-proof standards? The AI Incubator project has developed the Principles and Protocols for Trustworthy AI in Recruiting and Hiring, a global baseline standard for the use of AI applications in recruitment and hiring providing practical and actionable guidance for employers and vendors seeking to leverage AI technology responsibly and equitably. Learn MoreEmerging Areas of Interest
Connected Vehicles: As cars become smarter and more interconnected, do the rules of the road need to change? How do we anticipate the new normal of safety, security, and data protection, while ensuring that businesses remain on a level playing field and consumers are heard?The Metaverse: The rules of the road for the metaverse, which is being hailed as the next big technological revolution, are still being written. How can we ensure consumers are protected while encouraging innovation as businesses explore this next digital frontier? Get Involved
Research
CISR focuses on research that addresses industry-wide challenges to develop fair, future-proof best practices.
Blogs
The TAPP Roadmap: Helping U.S. Companies Responsibly Collect and Manage Teenager Data
Punctuated by last month’s 2022 State of the Union address, lawmakers and regulators in Washington, D.C. and state capitals are demonstrating a keen focus on the dynamic data privacy space – the data that companies, advertisers, and app developers collect, use, and share – yet with little to no guidance specific to the teen audience, a complex landscape bridging both “child-directed” and “adult” platforms and content.
Even as data privacy and safety practices that work for adult consumers provide a firm foundation for teens, they simultaneously run the risk of being insufficient to respond to the unique needs of teens. The teenage stage of cognitive and social development means that the risks and harms implicit in the use of digital products and services may differ in both kind and degree for teen users. That is, privacy and other harms that affect adults may be more impactful to teenagers, while additional harms may be unique to this demographic.
That’s where the TeenAge Privacy Program (TAPP) Roadmap comes in.
To assist any business that wishes to engage proactively with teen consumers, the TAPP Roadmap offers an operational framework to map the broad spectrum of potential harms impacting teens onto a concrete set of operational considerations.
The Roadmap, developed in coordination with companies representing consumer goods, children’s marketing, and wireless and media technology companies, was designed around four guiding considerations:
- Businesses should inform teens about the types of personal data that will be collected or inferred about them and the available tools and choices for managing their information. When appropriate, businesses should also provide parents with educational resources.
- The potential presence of teen users or consumers should prompt businesses to examine certain privacy practices, including the implementation of default settings, the use of sensitive personal information, the presence and accessibility of robust privacy choices, and the retention of personal information.
- When systems facilitate interaction or information sharing among individuals, trust and safety should be considered with special regard to the particular needs of teens.
- When systems deliver content to individuals, especially when content is tailored based on individual interests/behaviors, the unique risks and harms of teens should be considered.
The Roadmap’s use cases are organized into four main areas: general business practices targeting a teen audience, the collection of teen data, the use and retention of teen data, and the sharing of teen data. Some of the identified risks and harms identified in the TAPP Roadmap aligned to those business practices include the normalization of a lack of privacy, self-harm, amplifying insecurities, cyberbullying, algorithmic echo chambers, unsafe/unwanted contact, and more.
The TAPP Roadmap, launched by BBB National Programs’ 501(c)(3) foundation, the Center for Industry Self-Regulation, is one step in the right direction towards a safer digital marketplace for teens. The TAPP Roadmap is an educational tool that businesses can immediately use to create a dedicated process for considering the unique needs of the teenager consumer group. Read the Press Release
News
Justin Connor Named Executive Director for The Center for Industry Self-Regulation, a Foundation Created by BBB National Programs
McLean, VA – May 17, 2022 – Recognizing a timely opportunity to promote and grow the next generation of independent industry self-regulation programs, The Center for Industry Self-Regulation today named Justin Connor as its inaugural Executive Director. The announcement was made by Eric D. Reicin, President...