Profiling the Mobile Customer – Privacy Concerns When Behavioural Advertisers Target Mobile Phones – Part I

This is the authors’ revised (to reflect changes made in the\ud peer review process) personal version of the text of the final journal article. The final published version can be found at:\ud http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02673649Mobile customers are being tracked and profiled by behavioural advertisers to be able to send them\ud personalized advertising. This process involves data mining consumer databases containing personally-identifying\ud or anonymous data and it raises a host of important privacy concerns. This article, the first in a two part series on\ud consumer information privacy issues on Profiling the Mobile Customer, addresses the questions: “What is profiling\ud in the context of behavioural advertising?” and “How will consumer profiling impact the privacy of mobile\ud customers?” The article examines the EU and U.S. regulatory frameworks for protecting privacy and personal data\ud in regards to profiling by behavioural advertisers that targets mobile customers. It identifies potential harms to\ud privacy and personal data related to profiling for behavioural advertising. It evaluates the extent to which the\ud existing regulatory frameworks in the EU and the U.S. provide an adequate level of privacy protection and identifies\ud key privacy gaps that the behavioural advertising industry and regulators will need to address to adequately protect\ud mobile consumers from profiling by marketers. The upcoming second article in this series will discuss whether\ud industry self-regulation or privacy-enhancing technologies will be adequate to address these privacy gaps and makes\ud suggestions for principles to guide this process