Privacy by Design
AdAdvisor, a Neustar service, is committed to upholding the highest standards of consumer privacy protection and control. We design our products from the ground up with privacy in mind, employing best "Privacy by Design" principles. Neustar is an active member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA).
AdAdvisor services ("the Services") place a cookie containing non-personally identifiable information on a user's computer. A cookie is a small file created by a Web server, delivered through a Web browser and placed on a user's computer. AdAdvisor cookies enable Web sites using the Services to recognize users when they return to those Web sites.
The Services facilitate the delivery of the most relevant offers to the right consumers while both protecting the privacy of consumers and offering a choice about participating in such activities. The Services enable advertising clients to customize online display advertisements while incorporating rigorous privacy protections.
Information Collection and Use and Retention
We use Personal Information provided by an advertiser or online Match Partner about its customers and prospects, to create and set cookies – but these cookies never contain or convey Personal Information. Here’s how we do this:
Neustar uses a combination of basic, publicly available demographic data points to place households into pre-defined market segments. Our proprietary market segmentation model, ElementOneSM, places each U.S. household into one of 232 market segments (each called an “Element”) based on commercially available household-level demographic information consisting of neighborhood type; age, income, and cost of living bands; home ownership/rental; and presence/absence of children. Each “Element” includes a minimum of several hundred thousand U.S. households, and many Elements include several million households. These 232 segments are further rolled up into 171 segments for use by AdAdvisor in the online environment.
Additional commercially available demographic and survey data is aggregated by Element and analyzed to determine the likelihood that a typical household in a given Element will share a particular preference or characteristic. This information is presented as the likelihood that a household in a particular Element shares a particular characteristic (e.g., households in Element 100 are 80% more likely than average households to have children, drive SUVs, use a certain brand name product, or watch a particular cable network).
Our Match Partners permit us to access online registration information, which is personally identifiable, to associate an online browser with the pre-assigned segment for that household. Once the association is made, which is nearly instantaneous, AdAdvisor discards the registration information and sets a cookie that contains the pre-assigned AdAdvisor segment code.
Businesses use the information in AdAdvisor cookies to tailor online advertising based on insights we have developed about the preferences and interests of households in the same demographic segment. This information, in combination with log and other data may also be used by Neustar or our advertising clients to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.
For data security purposes, all data storage and processing is performed by Neustar servers residing in managed Class-A co-location data center facilities that deploy the most stringent security measures for physical as well as virtual access to their facilities and the systems and data hosted within.
Potentially Sensitive Data Segments
AdAdvisor does not create segments based on Sensitive Personal Information and our cookies do not enable ad targeting based on that kind of information. For added protection, our contracts with our partners disallow the use of our data to determine credit worthiness, eligibility for insurance, or for employment.
Here are some important facts to know about AdAdvisor cookies:
- Our segments consist of groups of hundreds of thousands of households with similar demographic and life-stage characteristics.
- Businesses use our data to tailor ads to entire segments based on the segment's statistically modeled likelihood to have certain interests or propensities, not at an individual level.
- The contents of AdAdvisor cookies are encrypted, and can’t be read without the encryption key.
- We do not store any data in our cookies that can be used to identify, locate or contact you, businesses that use our cookie do not know who you are or where you live.
We feel it is important to provide this transparency to help consumers have a better idea of what our segments are and how they are used by our partners, so you can make informed decisions. If you wish to opt-out of our Service, please visit our AdAdvisor Opt-Out page here.
Opt-Out and Policy Updates
The Services also offer users a way to opt-out. If you prefer that we not provide any data to our partners, we provide an opt-out button below. Opting out here does not mean you will not see any advertising online. Rather, it means that the advertising and perhaps the content you see will not be as relevant or tailored to your interests
The AdAdvisor opt-out works by replacing the content within the existing AdAdvisor cookie with new content that clearly indicates that you have elected to opt-out of the Services. Moreover, if you delete the opt-out cookie, buys a new computer, or a different Web browser, you will need to opt-out again to preserve your opt-out status.
Opt-Out
Neustar is a member of several leading industry organizations dedicated to promoting best practices around the use and protection of consumer information. We are a member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), which provides information and guidance on how its member companies use and protect consumer information. To learn more about other NAI member companies’ practices and how you may also opt-out of their services, click the link below.
Take Me to NAI
The AdAdvisor privacy policy may be updated periodically. In the event there are any material changes to the data collection or usage practices described herein, the Services will obtain a user’s consent prior to utilizing any previously obtained data using said new practices.
Neustar is also a member of the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA") and the AdAdvisor Service is in compliance with the DAA Self-Regulatory Code.
