A new bill has been put forth by Democrats in the US House and Senate that could drastically change the entire online advertising industry if passed.

The bill in question, known as the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, was introduced by Anna Eshoo and Jan Schakowsky in the House and Cory Booker in the Senate. If passed, it would severely limit the way in which Google, Facebook and tech companies serve targeted ads to users.

The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act would prohibit targeted advertising using protected class information such as race, gender and religion. However, it would also prevent online advertisers from using personal data purchased from data brokers.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and other tech platforms would still be able to serve targeted ads based on a user's general location at the city or state level though. At the same time, “contextual advertising” based on the online content a user has interacted with would also still be allowed.

Surveillance advertising

In addition to banning targeted advertising, the bill would give the FTC and state attorneys general the power to enforce violations with fines of up to $5,000 per incident. These fines could quickly add up for large advertising firms and tech companies which would serve as an incentive for them to no longer serve targeted ads using a user's personal information.

Data brokers have the most to lose though as their entire business revolves around collecting data on users and selling it to companies so that they can deliver targeted ads.

Democratic congresswoman from California and the bill's lead sponsor, Anna Eshoo provided further insight on the dangers posed by the business model currently used by online advertisers in a statement, saying:

“The ‘surveillance advertising’ business model is premised on the unseemly collection and hoarding of personal data to enable ad targeting. This pernicious practice allows online platforms to chase user engagement at great cost to our society, and it fuels disinformation, discrimination, voter suppression, privacy abuses, and so many other harms. The surveillance advertising business model is broken.”

We'll have to wait and see if the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act passes but in the meantime, you can still force data brokers to give up the data they have on you by using Surfshark's new privacy tool Incogni.

We've also highlighted the best VPN and the best privacy apps

Via TechCrunch