The Association of National Advertisers ('ANA') sent, on 15 May 2020, a letter ('the Letter') to Congressman Adam B. Schiff, on keyword and ad blocking in light of the COVID-19 ('Coronavirus') pandemic, as well as challenges faced by the California Attorney General's Proposed Regulations ('the Proposed Regulations') under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ('CCPA'). In particular, the Letter outlines that the advertising industry has moved quickly and aggressively to ensure that ad-supported news media is not adversely impacted by overly broad keyword filtering of content related to the Coronavirus and adds that advertisers and agencies have worked closely with their brand safety providers to adjust both their policies and their technologies, so they can access additional ad inventory around brand-appropriate content related to the Coronavirus.  

In addition, the Letter highlights that the main challenge faced by advertisers at the moment is ad block requirements, such as the one under the CCPA Proposed Regulations, whereby news publishers and other digital entities would have to accept default opt-out signals, and not choice affirmatively selected by a consumer, that are funnelled through browsers or browser extensions. According to the Letter, such a requirement would exacerbate the impact of existing default settings for several browsers or browser extensions that automatically block ads, or the technologies used to enable ads and maintain consumer privacy preferences. 

You can read the press release here and download the Letter here.