Privacy legislation 'could threaten research'
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US-- The Marketing Research Association (MRA) has identified online privacy as one of its biggest concerns for 2009, because of concerns over online behavioural tracking and targeted advertising.
In a statement on the issues facing the profession in the year ahead, the MRA said: “State and federal governments will again look to regulate and restrict the collection and sharing of even non-personally identifiable information on the internet, such as IP addresses and cookies – essential data for online research.”
Howard Fienberg, government affairs spokesman for the Council of Marketing and Opinion Research, which is now part of the MRA, voiced the same concerns in an interview with Research in November, saying that the broad definition of “behavioural targeting” currently used by legislators would threaten all sorts of data collection – not just that which seeks to track people's movements online in order to sell or market directly to them.
Privacy groups have been urging the incoming administration to toughen up the rules on behavioural targeting as part of a comprehensive consumer privacy law, claiming that public mistrust of such practices is a threat to online commerce. But there are fears that research activities that do not threaten privacy will be tarred with the same brush.
One of the main sticking points is the tracking of IP addresses, which are used to identify individual computers on the internet. Although it is not possible to determine someone's name or physical address from their computer's IP address, campaigners argue that this apparent anonymity is an illusion, as a detailed individual profile can still be built up from a person's online activities, allowing advertisers to target them directly.
Another major issue to face the profession in 2009 will be cell phone research, the MRA said, and in particular the federal prohibition on using auto-diallers for cell phones, making them a costly and inefficient medium for research – but an increasingly important one as rising numbers of home owners ditch their landlines.
Author: Robert Bain
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