Does anyone know what the regulations or best practice are on what you can and cannot do in terms of customer data and wireless internet usage tracking in the UK? I am looking into cross digital channel (iTV, web, wireless) management information reporting, customer tracking and measurement etc...
I imagine that irrespective of channel you need to abide by the The UK Data Protection Act of 1998 which requires every data controller who is processing personal data to notify with the UK Data Protection Registrar?
(The Principles of Data Protection are that anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. They say that data must be:
1. fairly and lawfully processed;
2. processed for limited purposes;
3. adequate, relevant and not excessive;
4. accurate;
5. not kept longer than necessary;
6. processed in accordance with the data subject's rights;
7. secure;
8. not transferred to countries without adequate protection.)
If you provide a site for WAP-enabled phones to access then clearly you can analyse log files and any customer-entered data in the same way as a web site (as ABCe is doing for example). But how do you do privacy policies on a phone? Is that part of the contract you sign with the network operator? What if you don't sign a contract? Can handsets store persistent user cookies (like a PC user's hard drive) so that they only need log in once? What (customer) information do the network operators share with content providers if any? What are the regulations on this?
The internet does not have 'operators' or 'platform owners' in the way that wireless and iTV do, so regulation is either more complex (e.g. multiple international jurisdictions) or less complex (fewer controlling and interested parties involved) depending on how you look at it.
The internet is developing de facto privacy policy standars led by 3rd party certification bodies such as TRUSTe.
(The 7 key questions that you have to answer to the satisfaction of TRUSTe are:
1. What personally identifiable information of yours or third party personally identification is collected from you through the web site
2. The organization collecting the information
3. How the information is used
4. With whom the information may be shared
5. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
6. The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under your control
7. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.)
iTV has limitations e.g. current set top boxes cannot store persistent user cookies (only session cookies and a limited number at that), entering text is laborious (wot no keyboard!) etc. The content providers, now that all 4 platforms are offering IP-based services, can analyse log files and transactional data but the platforms have greatest access to customer data as they now the unique ID of the set top box and know the details of the household that have that set top box. They don't share this data with the content providers as a general rule. They do, however, provide management information services based on transactional data and the site usage data that they get through their transcoder head ends - the various platforms to varying levels of quality and efficiency mind...
The ITC (responsible for regulation of interactive TV) have adopted a fairly “light-touch” approach to regulation and, by indicating that they have no intention of regulating iTV content that is drawn from the internet, have cleared the way for new interactive TV formats. Their primary area of focus will be in ensuring that viewers understand when they are leaving a content/entertainment environment and entering a commercial/transactional environment.
They have set some stricter regulations on Enhanced TV: the user must perform at least 2 clicks before transactional information is displayed. Also only 1/3 of the site can be transactional.
So I have a fairly clear idea about web and iTV but what about wireless? Same as iTV?
CEO at Econsultancy
01 June 2001 18:09pm
Does anyone know what the regulations or best practice are on what you can and cannot do in terms of customer data and wireless internet usage tracking in the UK? I am looking into cross digital channel (iTV, web, wireless) management information reporting, customer tracking and measurement etc...
I imagine that irrespective of channel you need to abide by the The UK Data Protection Act of 1998 which requires every data controller who is processing personal data to notify with the UK Data Protection Registrar?
(The Principles of Data Protection are that anyone processing personal data must comply with the eight enforceable principles of good practice. They say that data must be:
1. fairly and lawfully processed;
2. processed for limited purposes;
3. adequate, relevant and not excessive;
4. accurate;
5. not kept longer than necessary;
6. processed in accordance with the data subject's rights;
7. secure;
8. not transferred to countries without adequate protection.)
If you provide a site for WAP-enabled phones to access then clearly you can analyse log files and any customer-entered data in the same way as a web site (as ABCe is doing for example). But how do you do privacy policies on a phone? Is that part of the contract you sign with the network operator? What if you don't sign a contract? Can handsets store persistent user cookies (like a PC user's hard drive) so that they only need log in once? What (customer) information do the network operators share with content providers if any? What are the regulations on this?
The internet does not have 'operators' or 'platform owners' in the way that wireless and iTV do, so regulation is either more complex (e.g. multiple international jurisdictions) or less complex (fewer controlling and interested parties involved) depending on how you look at it.
The internet is developing de facto privacy policy standars led by 3rd party certification bodies such as TRUSTe.
(The 7 key questions that you have to answer to the satisfaction of TRUSTe are:
1. What personally identifiable information of yours or third party personally identification is collected from you through the web site
2. The organization collecting the information
3. How the information is used
4. With whom the information may be shared
5. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
6. The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under your control
7. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.)
iTV has limitations e.g. current set top boxes cannot store persistent user cookies (only session cookies and a limited number at that), entering text is laborious (wot no keyboard!) etc. The content providers, now that all 4 platforms are offering IP-based services, can analyse log files and transactional data but the platforms have greatest access to customer data as they now the unique ID of the set top box and know the details of the household that have that set top box. They don't share this data with the content providers as a general rule. They do, however, provide management information services based on transactional data and the site usage data that they get through their transcoder head ends - the various platforms to varying levels of quality and efficiency mind...
The ITC (responsible for regulation of interactive TV) have adopted a fairly “light-touch” approach to regulation and, by indicating that they have no intention of regulating iTV content that is drawn from the internet, have cleared the way for new interactive TV formats. Their primary area of focus will be in ensuring that viewers understand when they are leaving a content/entertainment environment and entering a commercial/transactional environment.
They have set some stricter regulations on Enhanced TV: the user must perform at least 2 clicks before transactional information is displayed. Also only 1/3 of the site can be transactional.
So I have a fairly clear idea about web and iTV but what about wireless? Same as iTV?