- by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, April 7, 2025
The Association of National Advertisers is urging HouseRepublicans to endorse a nationwide opt-out privacy standard that would override state laws, arguing that a federal law would lower costs for businesses.
A national standard “would helpalleviate the substantial compliance burden imposed on businesses, eliminate confusion that may arise due to potentially conflicting state standards, retain well-functioning sectoral safeguards, andhelp small and startup businesses continue to offer innovative services in a competitive online marketplace,” the Association of National Advertisers writes in comments sent Monday to the HouseEnergy and Commerce Committee's Privacy Working Group.
The group, which formed in February and includes only Republicans, is led by committeechair Rep. Brett Guthrie (Kentucky) and vice-chair Rep. John Joyce (Pennsylvania).
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The ad organization adds that businesses “face staggering compliance costs” due to variations incurrent state privacy laws.
As of today, 19 stateshave enacted comprehensive consumer privacylaws, according to the privacy focused nonprofit IAPP (formerly International Association of Privacy Professionals).
The Association of National Advertisers specifically argues to lawmakersthat companies should be allowed to harness “non-sensitive” data for targeted advertising, unless consumers affirmatively opt out.
“Unnecessary limits on routine data usesthat sustain the ad-based online marketplace would hinder consumers’ access to low cost information and lead to a rise in subscription-based pricing that would threaten the egalitarian nature oftoday’s open internet,” the group writes.
“Any proposed framework should preserve the safe and reasonable data uses that underpin modern data-driven business practices, drivecompetition and innovation, and help safeguard consumer access to free and low-cost information,” the organization adds.
The group argues sensitive data should be “subject toheightened restrictions,” but contends that many state laws have defined sensitive too broadly.
“Certain data should be subject to heightened protections that give consumersgreater control over the processing of this data; however, some data elements that many states have designated as sensitive, such as race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation data, are vital forreasonable and routine business practices and should not be categorically defined as sensitive” the group argues. “For example, businesses should be able to use such data to target bespokehair products to Black women, or to extend messaging about religious programs or missions to congregations using religious affiliation.”
Federal lawmakers have drafted two majorbipartisan privacy bills in recent years, but ad industry groups opposed the proposals, and both ultimately failed to pass.
The American Data Privacy and Protection Act, proposed in 2022,would have prohibited companies from collecting or processing data about people's cross-site activity for ad purposes -- effectively outlawing one form of behavioral targeting. Other provisions wouldhave continued to let companies draw on data collected from their own sites in order to serve targeted ads to adults, on an opt-out basis.
In 2024, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) andRepresentative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) unveiled the bipartisanAmerican Privacy Rights Act. That bill, also, would have prohibited businesses from serving targeted ads to consumersbased on their activity across unaffiliated sites and apps.
Association of National Advertisers CEO Bob Liodice and American Association of Advertising Agencies CEO Marla Kaplowitztoldlawmakerslast year that the bill “would eviscerate the modern advertising industry.”
That bill died last year, after the House Energy and Commerce Committeecancelled a scheduled markupof the measure.
