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Privacy & Data

A Framework for Digital Signage Privacy

This CDT report includes a set of privacy recommendations for the rapidly growing digital out-of-home (DOOH) industry. The report focuses on the industry’s adoption of identification and interactivity technologies such as facial recognition, mobile marketing, social networking, RFID tracking and license plate scanners. CDT’s comprehensive digital signage privacy recommendations are based on the widely accepted Fair Information Practices (FIPs).

DOOH refers to the digital signs, billboards and displays rapidly proliferating in stores and other places. Increasingly, these signs can capture information about the people walking by or looking at them and use that information for various marketing purposes. CDT believes consumer privacy controls are essential for digital signage advertising to gain consumer trust, which in turn is crucial if the industry is to continue growing at its current explosive pace. Unless the industry adopts strong self-regulatory guidelines, it is likely to face consumer backlash and reactive government regulation that may stifle innovation.