House Democrats Reintroduce Sweeping Ad-Targeting Restrictions (mediapost.com)
Two House Democrats have reintroduced a sweeping privacy bill that would impose broad restrictions on companies' ability to use online data for ad targeting. The 143-page Online Privacy Act, introduced by California Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, would require that companies obtain consumers' explicit consent before collecting or drawing on their “personal information” in order to serve them with targeted ads, or to personalize content. The bill authors define personal information broadly enough to cover the type of data typically used for ad targeting. The definition includes de-identified data, as well as data that is reasonably linkable to a device or individual. One of the bill's many provisions would give consumers the right to access, edit and delete data about themselves.