Privacy policies didn't tell the whole story about third-party tools gathering personal information from the sites of medical and genetic-testing companies.
—revealed which ad tech modules the companies had embedded on their sites. The researchers then checked the companies' privacy policies to see whether they permitted and disclosed this type of cross-site tracking and the flow of data to Facebook that can result. In three of the five cases, the companies' policies did not have clear language about third-party tools that might be used to retarget or reidentify users across the web for marketing.
The vast majority of users, of course, click through terms of service and privacy policies without actually reading them. But the researchers say that this is all the more reason to shed light on how digital ad targeting, lead generation, and cross-site tracking can erode user privacy. The researchers focused on five consumer health-related companies: Color Genomics, Myriad Genetics, Health Union, Invitae, and Ciitizen. Invitae acquired Ciitizen in September, and the researchers found that the two companies went the farthest in their privacy policies to detail how they might use tracking technologies, including cookies and web beacons, that feed data to third-party services.
Myriad Genetics did not detail specific review or changes to its policies as a result of the findings, but it said that “no personal health information” from its quiz products is used to target individuals and that it complies with Facebook's health care advertising policies. Color Genomics says that it hasn't actively used two of the cross-site trackers the researchers detected on its site in almost a year, and that it's continuing to look through the research findings.
In its announcement about removing sensitive "Detailed Targeting" categories, Meta articulated the problem Downing and Perakslis examined in their research.
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