Almost every website that you visit and service that you use has some third party trackers that will harvest your usage data because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing companies to optimize their services or sell this valuable information to marketing agencies. The problem is that this might be a violation of a user’s privacy which is why these services need to obtain your consent before tracking you through third party cookies.
In spite of the fact that this is the case, many services infer consent even if they don’t explicitly receive it in the event that a user continues to use said service after they are told about data collection policies. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the Digital Advertising Accountability Program, which is a subset of the Better Business Bureau’s National Programs, doesn’t allow services to infer consent and can only track users who actively consent.
The program plans to start enforcing the rules a lot more strictly by 2023. That means that companies will no longer be able to track users without getting affirmative consent from them beforehand, nor will they be able to use an “opt out” model if users continue to utilize their services. Passive usage subsequent to a data collection policy announcement is not going to slice it anymore, and that will lead to users being able to enjoy a lot more privacy online.
American telecom company T-Mobile recently attempted to use the opt out model by tracking users’ web history and using it to deliver personalized ads to them. This is the most common reason for using third party trackers, but it goes against the policies that have now been established.
We might be seeing the demise of third party tracking entirely, although we will have to wait and see if it actually goes away. Many companies earn a lot of revenue from such forms of tracking and they might find loopholes in the policies yet again.
H/T: MediaPost / Illustation by Vectorjuice/freepik
Read next: App Market Reaches New Heights in Q2 2022, on Course for $33 Billion Consumer Spend and 34 Billion Downloads
In spite of the fact that this is the case, many services infer consent even if they don’t explicitly receive it in the event that a user continues to use said service after they are told about data collection policies. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the Digital Advertising Accountability Program, which is a subset of the Better Business Bureau’s National Programs, doesn’t allow services to infer consent and can only track users who actively consent.
The program plans to start enforcing the rules a lot more strictly by 2023. That means that companies will no longer be able to track users without getting affirmative consent from them beforehand, nor will they be able to use an “opt out” model if users continue to utilize their services. Passive usage subsequent to a data collection policy announcement is not going to slice it anymore, and that will lead to users being able to enjoy a lot more privacy online.
American telecom company T-Mobile recently attempted to use the opt out model by tracking users’ web history and using it to deliver personalized ads to them. This is the most common reason for using third party trackers, but it goes against the policies that have now been established.
We might be seeing the demise of third party tracking entirely, although we will have to wait and see if it actually goes away. Many companies earn a lot of revenue from such forms of tracking and they might find loopholes in the policies yet again.
H/T: MediaPost / Illustation by Vectorjuice/freepik
Read next: App Market Reaches New Heights in Q2 2022, on Course for $33 Billion Consumer Spend and 34 Billion Downloads
