White Paper
Data Privacy Enforcement Against Advertising Analytics, Trackers and Pixels
This paper explores the growing legal and regulatory risks associated with the use of advertising analytics technologies, such as trackers and pixels (also known as "AdTech") across industries. These tools, while commonly used for marketing and consumer behavior analysis, can inadvertently collect and share personally identifiable information (PII), including sensitive health data, leading to privacy violations.
Key Issues Include:
- Widespread Use of Trackers: 75% of top U.S. websites share personal data with third-party advertisers, often even when users opt out.
- Legal Risks: Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed under various laws including HIPAA, VPPA, wiretapping statutes, and consumer protection laws.
- Healthcare Sector Impact: Several healthcare organizations have faced multimillion-dollar fines and FTC investigations due to unauthorized sharing of health data via trackers.
- VPPA Revival: The Video Privacy Protection Act, originally meant for video rental history, is now being used to litigate against websites that track video content viewing behavior.
Included is a discussion of three practical steps that organizations can take in response to a lawsuit or regulatory investigation, and proactive steps that organizations can take to prepare and prevent privacy violations related to pixel and other advertising tracking.