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FEBRUARY
**2, 2023**
Dayen on TAP
Attacking the 'You Are the Product' Economy
The FTC takes action against GoodRx for sharing personal health data
with advertisers.
The old adage about the internet platform economy goes like this: "If
something is free, you are the product." Facebook, Google, and other
sites invite users into a world and try to keep them there as long as
possible to target ads, conducting mass surveillance that tracks your
every waking move. And this has been effectively sanctioned through a
disinclination to enforce various privacy rights and laws.
While it's easy to blame Big Tech for this conduct, those companies
also rely on partners who sell them information to use in their targeted
surveillance regimes. The Federal Trade Commission took action against
one of them today, in what could become a model for how to handle the
panopticon economy in the future.
Anyone who has had their insurance company deny access to a prescription
drug (in other words, anyone) has probably heard of GoodRx, which
provides free discount coupons for medications. I have often wondered
how they make that work economically. In part, it's because they do
the legwork
<[link removed]>
of finding the cheapest of the various drug prices across the country,
and negotiating with drug companies to broaden them. But that's not
really a moneymaking strategy for GoodRx. For that, it turns out that
you are the product.
Consumer Reports broke the story in March 2020 that GoodRx sells
customer data
<[link removed]>
to over a dozen internet companies, including Google and Facebook. This
allows tech firms to tie the names of the medications people research to
their phone or laptop.
It also violates health privacy laws, which are among the strongest. The
FTC has had a Health Breach Notification Rule in place since 2009, which
requires companies with access to personal health records to explain to
consumers when that data has been shared with others without their
knowledge. In September 2021, under new chair Lina Khan, the agency
warned health apps
<[link removed]>
that they must comply with the rule. Yesterday, it took action
<[link removed]>
against GoodRx, wielding the health breach rule for the first time.
The fine of $1.5 million was smaller than I'd have liked. But beyond
that, the FTC prohibited
<[link removed]>
GoodRx from sharing user data with any third parties for the purpose of
selling ads, required it to seek user consent (in a straightforward
manner, without deceptive user screens) for any sharing of health
information whatsoever, forced it to get third parties to delete the
data they have, and limited the time frame for GoodRx to retain that
data. This is the first time a government agency has asserted that
sharing health data for ads is illegal.
The FTC has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking
<[link removed]>
on digital surveillance, and you could see this order as the blueprint
for how to proceed with that: banning some forms of surveillance and
data sharing, requiring direct consent for all others, and limiting data
retention. You could see other rules layered onto that, but that's the
core. (I would love if regulators banned targeted advertising
altogether, and hopefully we'll get there someday.)
We've become so accustomed to getting ripped off, or having our data
used against us, that when the government tries to ban junk fees (as the
president announced yesterday
<[link removed]>)
or prevent surveillance marketing, industries that rely on such tactics
freak out <[link removed]>.
That must mean that Lina Khan and her colleagues are doing something
right.
~ DAVID DAYEN
Follow David Dayen on Twitter <[link removed]>
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How Biden Can End Secretive Corporate Tribunals
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The president has promised not to put anti-democratic investor-state
dispute settlement mechanisms in future trade deals. But they are still
in many existing ones. BY SARAH LAZARE
The Fed's Favorite Inflation Measure Has Some Large Holes
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There are strong reasons to think we can have stable prices and low
unemployment. BY RYAN COOPER
Americans' Climate Migration Has Begun
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The first generation of climate migrants tries to cling to the places
they call home, but bureaucrats, wallets, and an overheating planet have
the final say. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY
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