Selected Consumer Data Privacy Issues in the Drafting and Negotiating of Digital Advertising Contracts

Abstract

The friction between technology and privacy continues to flare white hot this year. Revelations by Edward Snowden that the US government had and was using its ability to monitor nearly all communications by computer, cell phone, smart phone and landline made from or to a person in the US (and to a more limited extent elsewhere) made global headlines in 2013. It helped stoke the ongoing debate about monitoring consumers as they visit websites, and what information businesses are capturing, what they are doing with that information, and whether their behavior amounts to spying on consumers. Convergence of media across smart screens from TVs to phones to tablets, makes cross platform advertising and consumer interactions increasingly common, and the ability of businesses to capture consumer information and behavior data ubiquitous.