New Privacy Rules Could Derail User Data Collection by Companies

Both tech giants and governments have been debuting new rules that could throw off the flow of user data that is used by companies for targeting with online ads, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday (Dec. 2).

Apple, for example, has changed things on its devices to restrict how users can be tracked, and Google is planning something similar on the Chrome browser. Meanwhile, governments in California and Europe are debuting privacy laws and putting more of a crunch on the data.

Companies are taking things into their own hands, with everyone from breweries to fast food chains now making a mad dash to get their own information and build millions of consumer profiles.

There’s a new urgency to this, even though it’s always been a priority, with advertisers traditionally using data from business partners like tech giants and ad-tech firms as guidance on how to focus ads.

Brands have employed a number of tactics to try and build up their own bases of user data, including loyalty programs, sweepstakes, newsletters, quizzes, polls and QR codes.

That can add up to some expensive work, as building detailed customer profiles can need highly technical software and data science expertise. The WSJ article notes that consumer-packaged-goods companies will likely struggle the most, as they do not always sell directly to customers.

In general, even if companies are successful at setting up ways to get data, they still will only have a tiny fraction of what the social media giants can muster.

Facebook and the other social media and tech giants have faced numerous privacy controversies, including a recent one in which Facebook might face litigation from consumer groups in Europe over its personal information collection policies from games on the app, dating back to 2012.

See also: Facebook Faces Lawsuits Over Alleged Privacy Violations 

The lawsuits, if filed, would have to do with Facebook’s policy at the time, in which users automatically agreed to share their info if they played games.