"Surveillance Advertising" Targeted in Congressional Bill

Citing privacy concerns as well as disinformation issues, three lawmakers in Congress filed a draft bill in mid-January that would prohibit the use of personal data to target advertising in common online scenarios. The bill's likelihood of passage is hard to estimate: although it has support in both the House and the Senate, it does not have bipartisan sponsorship. Nonetheless, it offers an interesting window into the "big tech" problem Congress has called out (on a bipartisan basis) over and over in the last several years as elections, vaccines, masks, and other issues have occupied our headlines and as lawmakers increasingly grow to understand how Facebook, Google, and other tech companies make money mining personal data.

The bill would prohibit ad networks and "facilitators" from using personal data to target ads. It would allow contextual advertising on the same page, but would not allow additional targeting using data associated with such ads. It also would prohibit using federally protected status (such as race and sex) to target ads.  

If passed, this bill would add to the changes already occurring in the online advertising space, such as Google's phase-out of third-party (tracking) cookies.