Privacy Watchdog Brings Sharethrough into Compliance with Digital Advertising Privacy Best Practices

McLean, VA – July 31, 2023 - BBB National Programs’ data privacy watchdog, the Digital Advertising Accountability Program (DAAP), brought Sharethrough, a Montreal-based advertising exchange, into compliance with the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) Self-Regulatory Principles for online interest-based advertising.

Sharethrough connects marketing campaigns, journalists, and content creators with supply-side advertising platforms in a variety of formats including display, video, and native advertising. DAAP monitors the digital marketplace for compliance with digital interest-based advertising best practices. As part of its ongoing monitoring activity, DAAP conducted a review of Sharethrough’s third-party targeted advertising practices. 

Though Sharethrough-provided advertisements identified by DAAP displayed the required DAA Ad Choices icon link per the DAA Principles, clicking on it redirected users to the top of Sharethrough's privacy policy without clear, meaningful, or prominent indications of where IBA-specific disclosures could be accessed. In addition, the privacy policy’s scattered references to Sharethrough's IBA practices lack an easy-to-use IBA opt-out mechanism and a statement of adherence to the DAA Principles. 

In response to DAAP’s inquiry, Sharethrough reviewed its practices for compliance with the DAA Principles. To meet its obligations and ensure consumers can easily learn more about how their data is being collected and used by third parties, Sharethrough modified its privacy policy, including: 

• Adding a new easy-to-find Section 10, titled “Industry Self-Regulation & Ad Choices,” which includes a statement of adherence to the DAA Principles, a description of the DAA-developed IBA opt-out tool, and a link for users to access the tool.
• Changed the Ad Choices link so that it takes users directly to Section 4, “Why We Collect Your Information.”
• In Section 4, added a description of opt-out choices and a jumplink that takes users directly to the new Section 10.

In its advertiser statement, Sharethrough stated that it is “strongly committed to establishing trust and accountability within the ad tech ecosystem, among our partners, and to users.”

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