Hasta La Creative!

One of the oldest digital advertising self-regulatory privacy groups, the Network Advertising Initiative, has lost a leader just as the Federal Trade Commission has named a tech consultant with a strong privacy pedigree as its chief technology officer.

NAI President and CEO Marc Groman will leave the 14-year-old trade body following a three-year stint in that position; the NAI is home to an online system that lets consumers opt out from behavioral advertising. Meanwhile, the FTC is reinforcing its focus on digital data privacy issues by bringing Ashkan Soltani into the fold.

Mr. Soltani is well known in digital privacy circles as an independent research consultant. He has a history with the FTC, having served there as staff technologist for the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. He’ll replace current CTO Latanya Sweeney, who plans to return to Harvard University; she founded and directs the school’s Data Privacy Lab. Ms. Sweeney’s research has homed in on de-identification and re-identification, or the ability to decipher an individual’s identity despite the fact that de-identification measures have been implemented.

Continue reading at AdAge.com