Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: FTC to host cross-device tracking privacy workshop, (Mar 17, 2015)
By Greg Hammond, J.D.
The FTC will host a workshop, entitled “Cross Device Tracking,” on November 16 at the Commission’s Constitution Center conference rooms, located at 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C., the agency announced today. The workshop, which is free and open to the public, will examine privacy issues surrounding the tracking of consumers’ activities across different devices for purposes of advertising and marketing.
The proliferation of devices and their technologies has established new challenges for marketers and consumers, according to the Commission. While cookies previously allowed companies to track consumers’ online activities in order to target advertising and allow consumers to exercise and store their privacy choices, such tracking technology does not operate across multi-device, multi-platform digital landscapes. The industry has consequently turned to alternative techniques to track consumers across devices, such as “deterministic” and “probabilistic” tracking. The FTC is consequently holding a public discussion to address the privacy issues concerning cross device tracking.
“More consumers are connecting with the internet in different ways, and industry has responded by coming up with additional tools to track their behavior,” said FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich. “With the advent of new tracking methods, though, it’s important to ensure that consumers’ privacy remains protected as businesses seek to target them across multiple devices.”
In an effort to inform the FTC staff’s examinations of issues at the upcoming workshop, the Commission is seeking public comment on the following questions:
What are the different types of cross-device tracking, how do they work, and what are they used for?
What types of information and benefits do companies gain from using these technologies?
What benefits do consumers derive from the use of these technologies?
What are the privacy and security risks associated with the use of these technologies?
How can companies make their tracking more transparent and give consumers greater control over it?
Do current industry self-regulatory programs apply to different cross device tracking techniques?
Comments may be submitted online through October 16.
News: Privacy ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews