Bipartisan Group Requests FTC Probe of Digital Ad Industry, With Starks’ Backing

The FTC should investigate whether the digital ad industry is improperly tracking consumers’ phones, computers and TVs, a bipartisan, bicameral group wrote the agency Friday with support from FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks: Industry groups are putting consumer data up for auction with real-time bids for the right to curate digital ads. Hundreds of participants collect sensitive information like location, gender, race and age without obtaining consent, they wrote. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Ed Markey, D-Mass., signed the letter with Reps. Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren and Ro Khanna, all D-Calif., and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. Starks issued a statement with Clarke, saying communities of color and protesters are at particular risk: The industry has amassed and is exploiting “massive dossiers on Americans” regarding where “they exercise their rights to worship and protest.” The FTC confirmed Friday it received the legislators' letter.