Sen. Chuck Schumer has released a “code of conduct” that aims to guide how analytics companies use consumer data collected during retail store activity. Yet the voluntary, non-legally-binding code was developed with a group cosy with the telecom industry.
Sen. Schumer (D-NY), the Future of Privacy Forum and a group of
major retail analytics companies announced the code Tuesday
“to promote consumer privacy and responsible data use for
retail location analytics.”
The companies that have signed off on the code include Euclid,
iInside, Mexia Interactive, SOLOMO, Radius Networks, Brickstream
and Turnstyle Solutions - all top firms developing ways to track
consumer movement and data for major retail chains and
advertisers, The Verge reported.
“The code of conduct includes in-store posted signs that alert
shoppers that tracking technology is being used, and instructions
for how to opt out,” the parties said in a press release on
the announcement. The code calls for "clear, short, and
standardized" notices for customers squeamish about the
tracking.
The code of conduct also claims companies joining the effort are
urged to work with other analytics-tracking operations on a
single website where consumers can opt-out of applications
companies use to pick up data through their smartphones.
Yet the code is not legally binding, “meaning companies can
choose to disobey or skirt it any time, without any real
repercussions for their business, other than bad PR,” Verge
writes.
In addition, the code allows for analytics tracking as long as
the information is “anonymized” and used in aggregate sans
identifiable material.
Schumer’s partner in announcing the voluntary policy - the Future
of Privacy Forum (FPF) - comes with baggage of its own that calls
into question the strength of a “code of conduct” that
pledges to protect consumer data.
Formed in 2008 “in support of transparency, user control and
the advancement of responsible data practices,” FPF’s
advisory board and list of “supporters” is a who’s who of
major companies - and their privacy officers - with a stake in
utilizing customer data.
The list includes: Twenty-First Century Fox, Walmart, Lockheed
Martin, Sprint, Toyota, Nordstrom, McAfee, Yahoo, Facebook,
American Express, Google, Bank of America, Proctor & Gamble,
LinkedIn, Intel, Apple, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Netflix,
Microsoft, Macy's, AOL, Pfizer, IBM, AT&T, Visa, HSBC, Dell,
MasterCard, Merck & Co. and Verizon.
Not only do they have a stake in using customer behavioral
monitoring, but many of the companies have gone to the mat to
protect their own immunity and reputations after handing the US
government access to customers’ phone records and other data
without warrants or oversight in the past decade.
Its co-founder and executive director, Jules Polonetsky, is a
former chief privacy officer at AOL.
Upon creation of the group in 2008, major privacy advocates
Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties
Union were clueless as to what the group was and who was behind
it.
“If EFF wasn’t consulted and we weren’t consulted and neither
of us had even heard of the group until their coming out party
yesterday, what does that say about the agenda of the Future of
Privacy Forum?” the ACLU wrote about FPF in 2008. “Not to
toot our own horn, but come on. If privacy scholars are being
lined up to work with this group we would’ve heard about it.”
The press release associated with the announcement says the code
was formed after Schumer, in June, “warned that major national
retail chains were testing technology that would allow them to
automatically track shoppers’ location through stores.”
The analytics companies “use mobile device Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
MAC addresses to develop aggregate reports for retailers,”
the release stated.