FTC Releases Insights from Surveillance Pricing Study
The FTC released some initial insights from the surveillance pricing study, with findings that indicated intermediaries have access to a large amount of data types and sources, as well as tools that can influence prices that consumers see, said the commission in a blog Friday.
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“While there is still much more work to do, the agency continues to proactively learn from and engage participants on surveillance pricing and how it may be affecting consumers and competition,” said the post.
The blog post cited recent FTC actions that show how the commission has “continue[d] to learn from advancements and impacts of technology deployed today,” including the complaint against Mobilewalla over its alleged collection of consumer information and sensitive location data from its real-time bidding system, or its ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data from data broker Outlogic.
"These recent enforcement actions underscore the sophisticated forms of surveillance technology embedded within the ad tech ecosystem," said the blog. "The cases also reinforce the relevancy of the 6(b) study’s initial insights, which explores the data types, data sources, and methods of targeting and segmentation that can not only be used to serve ads, but to determine prices as well."