FTC

SIIA Statement on Today’s FTC Vote Prioritizing Enforcement of COPPA

by PolicyPress Release

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) issued the following statement today on behalf of SIIA Senior Director, Education Policy Sara Kloek regarding today’s vote by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopting a policy statement prioritizing the Commission’s enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as it applies to the use of education technology.

“We applaud the FTC for prioritizing the issue of student privacy in today’s open meeting. The FTC’s policy statement is helpful in reiterating what has long been required by COPPA, FERPA, and many student privacy laws at the state level: that education technology providers must prioritize data minimization, security, and use restrictions. These are key priorities for SIIA members.

“We believe it is important to hear from the public when taking steps to protect student privacy. We look forward to continuing to participate in the rule review process that the FTC began in 2019.”

Kloek addressed the FTC prior to the vote outlining the landscape of student data privacy laws and practices. She also highlighted the collaboration between SIIA and others in the education privacy space to formulate best practices and policies to protect student privacy.

tech&

Reflections on the U.S.-EU TTC: Progress on Transatlantic Digital Policy – But Controversial Issues Remain

by PolicyTech&

By Mort Skroejer and Paul Lekas

There is much to celebrate about the second ministerial meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), held on May 16 in Paris-Saclay, France. Relations between the U.S. and the EU have vastly improved in the past year. Contacts at all levels of government are more frequent, and they are marked by a genuine desire to work constructively toward finding solutions to common challenges. But there is also room for improvement. After two rounds of high-level meetings, the TTC is approaching a point where the parties will need to move beyond the low-hanging fruit and show measurable progress on some of the thornier issues in the transatlantic relationship around digital governance.

The second TTC meeting took place in the shadow of the brutal and illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Tragic as it is, the invasion provided an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of the transatlantic relationship, pursue policies based on “shared democratic values” and, with astonishing speed, agree to implement debilitating sanctions and export control measures aimed at the Putin regime.

The U.S.-EU Joint Statement outlines a robust agenda for pursuing alignment on tech and digital policy.  SIIA is pleased that the ministerial adopted recommendations we advocated for with U.S. and EC officials. Importantly, the TTC announced that it will undertake concrete steps to further a risk-based approach to artificial intelligence (AI) that builds on the critical work being done by the OECD, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and standards development organizations.This will enable regulators to better assess AI systems for safety, security, trustworthiness, and bias. 

In addition, as suggested by SIIA, the TTC will pursue a common project around privacy enhancing technologies (PETs). The PET category includes technologies that are designed to protect the privacy and security of sensitive information. The reason PETs are so important is that they can serve as an integral part of a democratic model of emerging technology, and act as a counter to an authoritarian model preferred in some countries that sacrifices privacy, trust, safety, and transparency.

The TTC was not going to be able to solve every trade or technology-related irritant in the transatlantic relationship in the first year of its existence. And there is much to commend governments on both sides for all that has been accomplished so far. But after two successful meetings, it is also important to be clear-eyed about the challenges that lie ahead.

There remain challenges in the transatlantic relationship around digital policy. Critically, the EU has moved forward with a series of regulations that will make it more difficult to pursue a shared vision of democratic technology governance. These include the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, which would create barriers to U.S. companies and carry risks to international security. In addition, the recently proposed Data Act compounds these challenges and would impose restrictions on international transfers of information well beyond those that led to the invalidation of the Privacy Shield and have imperiled transatlantic commerce. 

Forging closer bonds and reestablishing trust are important accomplishments in the first year of the TTC. But building on these early successes by delivering more concrete results will be important for the next round of talks in December.

SIIA’s recommendations for the second TTC ministerial are summarized here. And the joint U.S.-EU Joint Statement following the talks can be found here.

Positive Data Privacy Case Study (Twitter Post) (2)

New SIIA Case Study Celebrates Positive Data Privacy Best Practices

by Policy

This spring, we are showcasing companies that have launched innovative solutions and best practices for secure and responsible data use. These companies are not just supporting their customers, but providing socially beneficial uses that have a positive impact on the community – from human rights efforts, to improving personalized learning and educational outcomes, to combating deep fakes, to building conscious data practices into the digital ecosystem.

Read more about these data privacy super stars here.

IHaveNotes

Experiences Rule. How The Atlantic Is Using Newsletters to Respond to Reader and Listener Needs

by Media

According to Litmus, 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences, and 83% of customers are willing to share their data to create a more personalized experience. More than 65% of marketers are creating at least two versions of an email on average. Nearly 16% are creating four or more.

Experiences are in.

In an article in NiemanLab recently, The Atlantic’s executive director of audience research Emily Goligoski wrote about the 5 “Reader and Listener Needs” they found from an expansive survey they conducted. In assessing these needs, it’s clear that The Atlantic wants its readers to have more personalized experiences. Here are some insights from that research—taking a look at each of those needs.

Introduce me to writers at the top of their craft. The Atlantic built on the success of Robinson Meyer’s climate change newsletter The Weekly Planet.  Another is called I Have Notes by memoirist Nicole Chung. “Some look to Asian American stories—which are always ‘timely,’ always worth uplifting—to manifest a worth, a dignity, that should have already been evident,” she wrote recently. DEI, sustainability and climate change are all huge issues today, particularly for young people—83% of millennials say it’s important that companies they buy from also align with their values, and 73% of 35-54 year olds and 60% of 55+ year olds agree. (Elizabeth Green, CEO of Brief Media, will be talking about her media organization’s commitment to social good at our AMPLIFY conference, June 22-23 in Washington, D.C.)

Give me deeper clarity and context. “Our audience members have wide-ranging passions, from community service to cycling to learning languages,” Goligoski wrote. “A general interest publication like The Atlantic can’t offer the depth of knowledge they find in forums and through communities dedicated solely to their topical interests.” They are now up to (at least) 14 newsletters. Others include Dear Therapist, the puzzle-centric The Good Word and How to Build a Life. “The [B2B] media space has changed, and for that matter, so have the needs of the professionals it serves,” said ALM CEO Bill Carter. “We have to provide context and insight, data and analysis, forums and events that allow our customers to excel as practitioners as well as business professionals. Through this evolution, we strive to be the most trusted information services, data and media company available to our key industries.”

Help me discover new ideas. Organizations report that they have taken initiatives to focus more on innovation. This has entailed focusing more on communication and collaboration (62%, up from 53% in 2020), providing encouragement to innovative employees (52%, up from 38% in 2020), and driving innovation from the top down (45%, up from 41% in 2020). However, only 20% of association executives report that their association has a process in place to encourage innovation and new ideas. More than half (54%) say they do not. And the pandemic probably did not improve this. “Our consumer strategy and growth team used this insight—that people who are familiar with The Atlantic appreciate the range that it offers—in planning recent marketing emails to prospective subscribers,” wrote Goligoski.

Challenge my assumptions. “Our data science team has seen that ‘lighter’ topics tend to appear earlier in a person’s path to becoming a subscriber, and that ‘weightier’ topics tend to be the reads immediately before a person makes a decision to subscribe,” wrote Goligoski. “We don’t lean toward one of these over the other; rather, it’s the overall composition of topics a reader spends time with that matters most in driving return visits and subscriptions.” The Atlantic’s top-performing marketing emails list content examples that demonstrate their topic range.

Let me take a meaningful break. “When they come to us, they’re not looking to zone out. They’re looking for novel approaches into big picture topics.” So while The Atlantic knows they’re not Saturday Night Live, they’re also not the Congressional Record. I noticed a crossword on their homepage and a Recommended Reading list. Even meaningful breaks can be experiences, maybe even more so if you consider quizzes, puzzles, This Day in Our History, anniversaries, etc.

Lunch&LearnSeries_1080x1080

Associations Council: Innovative Approaches to Revenue Development

by AM&P Network Video Library

The pandemic has pushed associations to rethink many of the non-dues revenue assumptions by which they had long operated, forcing a new level of innovation and experimentation. The print-digital dichotomy was redefined—in both directions. Conferences went virtual. Exhibit halls were a non-starter. And yet many associations thrived, pioneering new approaches using tools such as sponsored webinars, sponsored content, more reliance on outsourced sales teams, and more. Here’s a look not only at what worked and what didn’t, but also at how the non-dues revenue efforts of associations have changed permanently—for the better.

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