Advertising on multiple devices

The FTC recently held a three day conference on dealing with the spread of advertising messages to multiple media. While the FTC continues its preference for self regulation, it is clear that that preference is fraying around the edges. What seems clear is that the FTC believes marketing pitches are getting more aggressive and overreaching. A big issue is tracking consumer behavior over multiple devices, and using this information to target ads. While this activity isn't illegal, per se, how that information is used can create significant legal issues. Hosts need to examine what the technology they sell to customers will do, and what legal liability they have for their customer's use of this technology; what your privacy policy says; and your customer's and their end user's privacy expectation. The key issue for me is that some consumers are always going to want to be anonymous. When looking at these new marketing pitches, and technologies, you should try to allow customers to "opt out."