Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: FTC Chairwoman Ramirez questions implications of cross-device tracking, (Nov 19, 2015)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

In presenting the opening remarks at the FTC’s “Cross-Device Tracking” Workshop, held November 16 in Washington, D.C., FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez discussed the evolution of tracking, key privacy questions cross-device tracking techniques raise, and the development of effective solutions.

Cross-device tracking refers to the practice of tracking consumers across Internet-connected devices. While these tracking techniques may provide significant benefits to consumers, such as cross-device efficiencies and the implementation of fraud prevention programs, they also raise a number of transparency and consumer control questions with regard to privacy, Ramirez noted.

“This more extensive tracking allows companies to connect more and more of consumers’ offline activities with their online activities,” Ramirez said in her prepared remarks, resulting in “more detailed and more personalized consumer profiles that are assembled, traded, and shared by a growing number of entities in the data ecosystem.” She added, “Not only can these profiles be used to draw sensitive inferences about consumers, there is also a risk of unexpected and unwelcome use of data generated from cross-device tracking. For example, certain data could be misused by unauthorized third parties in a way that affects consumers’ access to loans, jobs, or educational opportunities.”

According to Ramirez, these transparency concerns are exacerbated by consumers’ lack of awareness of, and choices regarding, tracking. In particular, there are almost no tools that allow consumers to know which of their devices are linked together by tracking companies or specifically linked to the consumers, Ramirez observed. In addition, the few opt-out tools that exist do not allow consumers to opt-out of underlying data collection and linking of identifiers.

“[I]n addition to notice and choice, we need more discussion about the role that data minimization—as well as security and accountability—play in addressing privacy concerns raised by marketing through cross-device tracking,” Ramirez stated. “We should consider how these important principles can be applied in the context of cross-device tracking to mitigate privacy concerns.”

News: Privacy FederalTradeCommissionNews