Complaints about consumer online tracking typically comes from consumers themselves, but Chinese digital agencies were accused by their government of secretly collecting personal info in a state-sponsored TV report on March 15.
This cannot mean good things for data-driven Western companies looking to expand eastward into a society with a new (and growing) middle class.
That the expose-style report aired on CCTV, the government mouthpiece, suggests Beijing may be tightening supervision of companies that can access consumers’ personal data.
Using hidden cameras, a CCTV reporter apparently posing as a prospective client had conversations with employees at five local digital ad agencies. Agency employees told the reporter they use cookies to access web users’ personal information, including gender, age, marital status, education, salary and email addresses, to more accurately target consumers with online advertising. The story featured footage from what appeared to be the offices of agencies Yoyi and Avazu. The agencies were not given a chance to respond to the allegations.
A top executive at one of the agencies said that CCTV took comments out of context to make it seem as if they were implicating themselves in breaching consumer privacy. CCTV had no comment.
The shops develop consumer profiles based on cookie data, but it’s done in line with international standards, without accessing identifying information, said the executive, who declined to be identified to avoid drawing additional scrutiny from regulators.
The influential broadcaster takes aim at a different high-profile multinational company each year. This year, CCTV targeted Apple, saying its repair policies fail to meet standards set in Chinese law. Other state media outlets piled on the criticism. Apple CEO Tim Cook has since apologized and vowed to improve customer service policies.
This story originally appeared in Advertising Age.
