Plans to Increase Transparency and Accountability of Companies Providing and Purchasing Surveillance Advertising
Ministry of Home AffairsSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the policy, transparency, and accountability of companies providing and purchasing surveillance advertising, as raised by Mr Desmond Choo. Minister Josephine Teo stated that organisations must obtain clear, non-deceptive consent when using personal data for advertisements according to PDPC guidelines. The PDPC monitors international regulatory developments and privacy-preserving technologies to strengthen corporate accountability and ensure terms of consent are communicated clearly. Minister Josephine Teo noted that organisations cannot require consent beyond what is reasonable for service provision and must avoid misleading practices. Consumers are also encouraged to safeguard their interests by withholding consent if they consider requests excessive or suspect an organisation’s legitimacy.
Transcript
44 Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what is the policy on surveillance advertising; and (b) whether there are plans to increase the transparency and accountability of companies providing and purchasing such services.
Mrs Josephine Teo: The Government supports online commercial activities that use personal data for legitimate purposes. However, there must be accountability and transparency to safeguard individuals’ interests. Organisations which collect, use and disclose personal data for serving relevant advertisements are required to notify individuals clearly and obtain their consent. Organisations cannot obtain this consent through misleading or deceptive practices and cannot require consent from individuals beyond what is reasonable to provide a service to them. The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has set out its position in advisory guidelines which highlight the data protection measures organisations need to put in place. These include obtaining individuals’ consent for the collection of personal data through cookies for targeting advertisements.
The PDPC is monitoring international regulatory developments, as well as recent developments in the advertising technology industry such as the advent of privacy preserving means for targeted advertising. The PDPC will put in place additional measures, where relevant, to strengthen accountability of organisations and to ensure that the terms of consent are communicated clearly.
Consumers can also do their part. They may wish to withhold consent if they consider the request to be excessive, or suspect the legitimacy of the organisation and the manner in which consent was sought.