The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on January 23, 2017, released a report designed to provide guidance and insight into the privacy issues associated with tracking a user across multiple devices.
Cross-device tracking is becoming more commonly used by advertisers and digital media companies to link usage activity across devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. For advertisers, this type of tracking is an effective means to raise conversion rates, save purchase cart abandonment, or even raise engagement.
The FTC is very concerned that consumers do not know they are being tracked across their different mobile and home devices that collect personal information about them, which is then used to target ads based on their use of those devices. The recently released report by the FTC provides guidance concerning notice and consumer choice for companies who use cross-device tracking. To view the full report, please CLICK HERE (PDF, 23 pages).
Although following the FTC Guidance is not “law”, failure to abide by the recommended disclosures raises the risk of regulatory and industry scrutiny, and possibly, enforcement action. If you or your ad service providers utilize cross-device tracking (or if you aren’t sure), we strongly suggest you follow these five tips:
- Find out whether you or your ad service providers use cross-device tracking technology to deliver ads. Keep in mind that you might not know what your service providers are doing so investigating this is critical.
- Revise your online privacy policy (a) to disclose the use of cross-device tracking, (b) provide consumers with the option to opt out of such tracking, (c) make it clear in your policy that consumers must opt out from each device separately, and (d) describe the information collected that enables technology (for instance, that you collect hashed emails, etc.)
- Make sure you have “reasonable” security protection in place for all data collected from consumers.
- If sensitive information is collected, consult with your IT group to make sure that there are “heightened” protections in place against unauthorized disclosure. The definition of what is sensitive data was expanded in the FTC staff report.
- Monitor your service providers, and at the very least, contractually require your service providers to follow the above recommendations.
