Improving Web Advertising Business Group

The Improving Web Advertising Business Group (IWABG) is a subcommittee of the World Wide Web Consortium with a focus on online advertising. In January 2020, Google encouraged advertising technology companies to join the group as a way to participate in the company's Privacy Sandbox initiative. The IWABG was formed in 2017; as of March 2022 it had 412 participants.

Improving Web Advertising Business Group
AbbreviationIWABG
Formation2017; 7 years ago (2017)
TypeCommittee
Membership
412
Chair
Wendy Seltzer
Parent organization
World Wide Web Consortium
Websitewww.w3.org/community/web-adv/ Edit this at Wikidata

Structure

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The IWABG was formed in 2017[1] and is chaired by Wendy Seltzer.[2] As of April 2021, it had 355 participants.[3]

IWABG participants attend periodical conference calls and collaborate on GitHub.[4][5]

Googleʻs Privacy Sandbox initiative

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In January 2020, Google encouraged advertising technology companies to join or contact the IWABG as a way to participate in the company's Privacy Sandbox initiative.[1][5]

Allegations of dominance by Google

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Member organizations in the IWABG each get one vote, but can send any number of representatives to participate. As of October 2020, there were 258 participants in the group, of which 33 were Google employees. In August 2020, a group of IWABG members wrote an open letter to the advisory board of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), expressing concern that "a disparity in organizational size" was preventing the W3C from fulfilling its purpose of equally representing all web stakeholders.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b O'Reilly, Lara (2020-01-29). "A key web standards group will help decide what comes after the third-party cookie". Digiday. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  2. ^ Schiff, Allison (2021-04-26). "An Inside Look At The W3C With Strategy Lead Wendy Seltzer, As Debate Swirls Around The Privacy Sandbox". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  3. ^ Rivero, Nicolás (25 April 2021). "The digital ad industry is rewriting the bargain at the center of the internet". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  4. ^ Sluis, Sarah (2020-07-06). "W3C Ad Tech Members Panicked About Slow Progress For Third-Party Cookie Alternative". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
  5. ^ a b OʻReilly, Lara (2020-01-21). "Publishers and marketers are mostly absent from key group deciding what comes after the third-party cookie". Digiday. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
  6. ^ Schiff, Allison (2020-10-12). "House Antitrust Report Highlights Unequal Power Dynamics At The W3C". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2021-05-22.