As we increasingly rely on the Internet and digital technology to help us make better choices about our health, consumers face new challenges. The online medical marketplace is evolving with few safeguards, raising questions about how best to protect our privacy, receive reliable information, and aren’t subjected to unfair marketing practices. CDD is working to ensure the digital health field is accountable; privacy is respected, and that safeguards are in place for online health marketing.

 
  • Advocates, experts urge Mark Zuckerberg to cancel plans to allow minors in Meta’s flagship Metaverse platform

    By: Jeff Chester | Apr 14 2023

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    Citing research that illustrates a number of serious risks to children and teens in the Metaverse, advocates say Meta must wait for more research and root out dangers before targeting youth in VR

    VR

    Date

    Thursday, April 13, 2023
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  • Groups tell FTC: End all surveillance advertising & marketing to individuals under 18

    By: Jeff Chester | Nov 22 2022

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    Coalition of child advocacy, health, safety, privacy and consumer organization document how data-driven marketing undermines privacy and welfare of young people

    Children and teenagers experience widespread commercial surveillance practices to collect data used to target them with marketing. Targeted and personalized advertising remains the dominant business model for digital media, with the marketing and advertising industry identifying children and teens as a prime target. Minors are relentlessly pursued while, simultaneously, they are spending more time online than ever before. Children’s lives are filled with surveillance, involving the collection of vast amounts of personal data of online users.

    Date

    Monday, November 21, 2022
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  • Data-driven Health Marketing Surveillance in the U.S.

    By: Jeff Chester | Nov 21 2022

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    FTC Commercial Surveillance Filing from CDD focuses on how pharma & other health marketers target consumers, patients, prescribers

    “Acute Myeloid Lymphoma,” “ADHD,” “Brain Cancer,” “High Cholesterol,” “Lung Cancer,” “Overweight,” “Pregnancy,” “Rheumatoid Arthritis,” “Stroke,” and “Thyroid Cancer.” These are just a handful of the digitally targetable medical condition “audience segments” available to surveillance advertisers  While health and medical condition marketers—including pharmaceutical companies and drug store chains—may claim that such commercial data-driven marketing is “privacy-compliant,” in truth it reveals how vulnerable U.S.

    Date

    Monday, November 21, 2022
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  • Despite Flurry of New Safety Features, Social Media Platforms Still Not Doing Enough to Protect Children, CDD Report Finds

    By: Jeff Chester | Nov 16 2022

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    Government Needs to Step up its Efforts to Provide Meaningful and Effective Regulation

    Under intensifying pressure from Congress and the public, top social media platforms popular with young people – Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube – have launched dozens of new safety features for children and teens in the last year, according to a report from the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD). Researchers at CDD conducted an analysis of tech industry strategies to head off regulation in the wake of the 2021 Facebook whistleblower revelations and the rising tide of public criticism, Congressional hearings, and pressures from abroad.

    Date

    Wednesday, November 16, 2022
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  • Regulating digital marketing of alcohol: challenges and opportunities

    By: Jeff Chester | Oct 14 2022

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    Discussion by Jeff Chester at the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance

    Alcohol Marketers are now big data companies.  They are also commercial surveillance marketing enterprises, which is how data driven digital marketing is increasingly described by regulators and critics.  Like many other global industries, alcohol marketing uses an ever expanding set of diverse and sophisticated online and offline techniques designed to identify and deeply influence its target audiences.  Alcoholic beverage companies have broadly adopted the business model and tactics perfected by Google, Meta/Facebook, and Amazon.

    Date

    Friday, October 14, 2022
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  • Surveillance Marketing 2.0

    By: Jeff Chester | Jun 30 2022

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    Considering Privacy Legislation in the context of contemporary digital data marketing practices

    Last week, the leading global advertisers, online platforms and data marketers gathered for the most important awards given by the ad industry—the “Cannes Lions.” Reviewing the winners and the “shortlist” of runners-up—competing in categories such as “Creative Data,” “Social and Influencer,” “Brand Experience & Activation,” “Creative Commerce” and “Mobile”—is essential to learn where the data-

    Date

    Thursday, June 30, 2022
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  • FTC Should Examine Microsoft-Activision Deal, Consumer, Privacy, Labor, Repair Groups Say

    By: Jeff Chester | Mar 1 2022

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    Microsoft's further expansion into gaming, data gathering, digital marketing must trigger close scrutiny, inc. impacts on gamers, youth

    Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision-Blizzard raises serious red flags, Public Citizen, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Repair Association, the Communications Workers of America, and 11 additional groups said today in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

    Date

    Tuesday, March 1, 2022
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  • CDD Tells FTC It's Time to Regulate Commercial Surveillance Marketing

    By: Jeff Chester | Jan 26 2022

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    Documents 25 years of failures by agency to rein in practices that have eviscerated privacy and consumer protection in the U.S. and globally
    Date

    Wednesday, January 26, 2022
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  • New WHO Report on Digital Marketing of Alcohol

    By: Jeff Chester | Dec 8 2021

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    CDD's Jeff Chester contributed to report's focus on online marketing practices, inc. use of big data analytics, by alcoholic beverage companies

    (Excerpt from WHO release):  

    Just as with tobacco, a global and comprehensive approach is required to restrict digital marketing of alcohol.

    “The vast majority of alcohol advertising online is “dark”

    Children and young people are especially at risk from the invasion of their social spaces by communication promoting alcohol consumption, normalising alcohol in all social contexts and linked to development of adult identities.

    Date

    Wednesday, December 8, 2021
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  • We Can’t Let the Surveillance Ad Industry Create the new Rules for Privacy

    By: Jeff Chester | Oct 17 2021

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    Time for the FTC to intervene as marketers create new ways to leverage our “identity” data as cookies “crumble”

    For decades, the U.S. has allowed private actors to basically create the rules regarding how our data is gathered and used online. A key reason that we do not have any real privacy for digital media is precisely because it has principally been online marketing interests that have shaped how the devices, platforms and applications we use ensnare us in the commercial surveillance complex.

    Date

    Sunday, October 17, 2021
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  • The Big Data Merger Gold Rush to Control Your “Identity” Information

    By: Jeff Chester | Sep 22 2021

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    Will the DoJ ensure that both competition and consumer protection in data markets are addressed?

    There is a digital data “gold rush” fever sweeping the data and marketing industry, as the quest to find ways to use data to determine a person’s “identity” for online marketing becomes paramount. This is triggered, in part, by the moves made by Google and others to replace “cookies” and other online identifiers with new, allegedly pro-privacy data-profiling methods to get the same results. We’ve addressed this privacy charade in other posts.

    Date

    Tuesday, September 21, 2021
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  • Who is Really “Pushing” Your Online Shopping Cart as You Buy Groceries? It’s Big Data, Machine Learning and Lots of Cash from Advertisers

    By: Jeff Chester | Aug 10 2021

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    The FTC and States Should Investigate “Grocery Tech”

    Online grocery shopping became a pandemic response necessity for those who could afford it, with revenues to exceed $100 billion in 2021. Leading supermarket chains such as Kroger, big box stores like Walmart, online specialist companies such as Instacart, and the ubiquitous Amazon, have all experienced greater demand from the public to have groceries ordered and then quickly delivered or available for pick up.

    Date

    Tuesday, August 10, 2021
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  • “Big Food” and “Big Data” Online Platforms Fueling Youth Obesity Crisis as Coronavirus Pandemic Rages

    May 12 2021

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    New Report Calls for Action to Address Saturation of Social Media, Gaming Platforms, and Streaming Video with Unhealthy Food and Beverage Products

    The coronavirus pandemic triggered a dramatic increase in online use. Children and teens whose schools have closed relied on YouTube for educational videos, attending virtual classes on Zoom and Google Classroom, and flocking to TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram for entertainment and social interaction. This constant immersion in digital culture has exposed them to a steady flow of marketing for fast foods, soft drinks, and other unhealthy products, much of it under the radar of parents and teachers.

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  • CDD Joins Scholars and NGOs Calling on UN to Strengthen its Framework to protect Children in today’s Digital Era

    Nov 15 2020

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    General Comment submission
    Children’s rights in relation to the digital environment

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  • Memo to Transition Team: Privacy And Digital Rights For All

    Nov 11 2020

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    A blueprint for the next Administration
    Date

    Wednesday, November 11, 2020
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  • Does Buying Groceries Online Put SNAP Participants At Risk?

    Jul 16 2020

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    How to Protect Health, Privacy, and Equity
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  • USDA Online Buying Program for SNAP Participants Threatens Their Privacy and Can Exacerbate Racial and Health Inequities, Says New Report

    Jul 16 2020

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    Digital Rights, Civil Rights and Public Health Groups Call for Reforms from USDA, Amazon, Walmart, Safeway/Albertson’s and Other Grocery Retailers - Need for Safeguards Urgent During Covid-19 Crisis

    Contact:  Jeff Chester

                                                                                                    jeff@democraticmedia.org

                                                                                                    202-494-7100

                                                                                                    Katharina Kopp

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  • Groups Say White House Must Show Efficacy, Protect Privacy, and Ensure Equity When Deploying Technology to Fight Virus

    May 5 2020

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    Fifteen leading consumer, privacy, civil and digital rights organizations called on the federal government to set guidelines to protect individuals’ privacy, ensure equity in the treatment of individuals and communities, and communicate clearly about public health objectives in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. There must be consensus among all relevant stakeholders on the most efficacious solution before relying on a technological fix to respond to the pandemic.

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              Contacts: Susan Grant, CFA, 202-939-1003

    May 5, 2020                                                                         Katharina Kopp, CDD, 202-836 4621        

    White House Must Act To protect privacy and ensure equity in responding to COVID-19 pandemic

    Groups Tell Pence to Set Standards to Guide Government and Public-Private Partnership Data Practices and Technology Use

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  • The Google Fitbit Deal: Hazardous to Competition, Privacy, and the Future of Our Health

    By: Jeff Chester | Feb 7 2020

    Google’s (i.e., Alphabet, Inc.) proposed acquisition of Fitbit, a leading health wearable device company, is just one more piece illustrating how the company is actively engaged in shaping the future of public health.

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  • Popular Dating, Health Apps Violate Privacy

    Jan 14 2020

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    Leading Consumer and Privacy Groups Urge Congress, the FTC, State AGs in California, Texas, Oregon to Investigate

    Popular Dating, Health Apps Violate Privacy

    Leading Consumer and Privacy Groups Urge Congress, the FTC, State AGs in California, Texas, Oregon to Investigate

    For Immediate Release:
    Jan. 14, 2020 

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