Legislation for technology is not new to anyone, especially when it comes to data privacy. In June, a draft of a bipartisan bill called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act or ADPPA was brought to the House that has gone through many versions since then to help with the fight against data privacy in the US. The most recent version is privacy friendly focused with stricter guidelines for collecting user data.
“Generally, companies would only be allowed to collect and make use of user data if it’s necessary for one of 17 permitted purposes spelled out in the bill—things like authenticating users, preventing fraud, and completing transactions. Everything else is simply prohibited. Contrast this with the type of online privacy regime most people are familiar with, which is all based on consent: an endless stream of annoying privacy pop-ups that most people click “yes” on because it’s easier than going to the trouble of turning off cookies” (Edelman, Wired 2022).
However, the part of this bill that scares marketers and data collectors the most is that it would ban ads that target based on “sensitive data” like geolocation, private communications and activity across third-party services. This means that companies will not be able to see the digital path created when you jump from site to site and therefore not be able to collect that data to sell to you later on. If that wasn’t bad enough, since this is on the federal level it would apply to nonprofits and small businesses as well as large corporations so no one is safe from data tracking regulations (except for users of course).
The bill hasn’t passed yet so tracking is still fair game for now but even if it does not pass, it is only a matter of time before the ultimate data privacy apocalypse arrives. Since Google announced the ~original~ cookies termination date, data analysts have been scrambling to update to more privacy-friendly versions of their programs to help please users like Google Analytics and Tag Manager switching to GA4. This is only a temporary fix to the much larger problem though and if legislation like this continues, there will be more changes to come so you can expect to see many more articles about this to come.
Sources
Edelman, Gilad. “Congress Might Pass an Actually Good Privacy Bill.” Wired, Conde Nast, 21 July 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/american-data-privacy-protection-act-adppa/?utm_campaign=mkb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew.
Loriot, Hugo. “What the American Data and Privacy Protection Act Means for Marketers.” Marketing Dive, 19 July 2022, https://www.marketingdive.com/news/what-american-data-and-privacy-protection-act-means/626890/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+Weekly+Roundup%3A+Marketing+Dive%3A+Daily+Dive+07-23-2022&utm_term=Marketing+Dive+Weekender.
