Wisconsin Technology Network: Online Tracking and the Privacy Violations of Behavioral Marketing
Cleveland partner Deb Wilcox, co-chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation practice, authored a column that was published on October 15 on the Wisconsin Technology Network News website titled, "Online Tracking and the Privacy Violations of Behavioral Marketing."
The focus of Wilcox's article is behavioral targeting, which is "tracking a user's online activities to deliver advertising targeting to that user."
According to Wilcox: "Today's debate centers on information tracked on a broader level by Internet service providers ('ISPs'), called 'deep packet inspection.' This information is made up of granular details on users. The ISPs create profiles based on the search terms entered by a user into search engines, the Web pages visited, and the content viewed. The information on these habits is valuable to online marketers who desire to serve up the most relevant ads to the user." However, privacy advocates have "likened the sale of this behavioral data to illegal wiretapping."
Wilcox goes on to detail the Federal Trade Commission's position on behaviorial marketers, including its proposal that "every web site where data is collected for behavioral advertising should provide a clear, consumer-friendly, and prominent statement that data is being collected to provide ads targeted to the consumer and give consumers the ability to choose whether or not to have their information collected for such purpose."
According to Wilcox, "In this current era of self-regulation, many companies are calling for clear mechanisms for consumers to opt out. Roy Shkedi, CEO of AlmondNet, a New York-based behavioral targeting advertising company, proposes adding an opt-out link to every delivered advertisement, and making it clear to consumers that no personally identifiable information is used to deliver targeted ads."
Wilcox concludes: "Given that ISPs already have all of this detailed data, if they sell it without any personally identifiable information attached to it, how risky is it that a user's privacy will be impacted?"
To read the full article from the WTN News website, click here.