Bethesda, MD, March 20, 2006.  The Interactive Travel Services Association (ITSA) - www.interactivetravel.org, the association for the nation’s online travel companies, today announced it has adopted a set of best practices recommendations regarding the use of adware.  The association and its members distinguished and rejected the use of spyware as a threat to consumer privacy.  The recommendations encourage ITSA’s members and third party marketing companies, with which they contract, to adopt their own set of best practices following the lead of the online travel association.

The ITSA best practices document encourages adware companies to:  1) obtain “affirmative consent,” or prior approval from consumers for downloading adware, while simply explaining what the adware will do;  2) for consumers who already have downloads, go back and obtain their approval now;  3) provide an easy to find, understand and use method of uninstalling the adware;  and 4) identify who has created or is providing the adware in any download offers or any other promotions, such as pop-ups or pop-unders.  In addition, 5) advertisers should require their adware companies and any marketing groups they work with to abide by these practices.

ITSA Executive Director Art Sackler said:  “This set of best practices demonstrates the commitment that online travel companies have to marketing compelling travel deals and savings in a way that is sensitive to consumer privacy.  Endorsed by all of our members, ITSA believes that these practices are among the nation’s first industry position statements on the subject of adware.”

For the full text of the ITSA best practices document, please go to our website, www.interactivetravel.org, and click on “ITSA Best Practices for Adware”.

ITSA is the association for the nation’s online travel merchants and global distribution systems.  Among its members or their subsidiaries are:  CheapTickets, Expedia.com, Hotels.dom, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Priceline.com, Travelocity, and Vegas.com, as well as Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre Holdings, and Worldspan.

Contact:   Art Sackler
Executive Director, ITSA
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