Consumer Data Privacy Research Articles

Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy

Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy

NCTA v. FCC: do commercial free speech justifications trump consumers' personal data protection rights? Answer to shape mobile advertising industry

A recent US federal appellate court decision paves the way for government to regulate consumer privacy protections necessary to close global regulatory gaps and support the growth of the m-advertising industry. In NCTA v. FCC, the court upheld a new federal opt-in privacy rule that requires carriers to obtain customers' advance approval before releasing their telephone record information for marketing purposes. At stake in this case was the constitutionally required balance between protecting consumers' information privacy in an era of pervasive data processing and protecting the rights of marketers to engage in protected commercial free speech that involves using customers' personal information. The decision articulates a new constitutional balance in favour of consumer data privacy protection and significantly advances the consistency of the global regulatory environment for m-advertising. However, the ruling neither makes up for a lack of generally applicable consumer data protection legislation requiring fair information practices by carriers or m-advertisers nor does the decision address important questions such as whether or not some data processing activities that impact commercial marketing practices may be so incidentally related to commercial speech protections that regulators should have more discretion to regulate the data processing to adequately protect consumer privacy.

Image Data Mining of Check Transactions: Techniques and Applications

Check transactions represent a major information-rich stream of customer data that is available to banks today. However, this valuable source of data is largely untapped due to the difficulties associated with extracting data from check images. This paper will show how it is possible to exploit image processing and pattern recognition techniques to help extract and analyze the information content of check transactions. It will also explore how this information could be used within the context of a data warehouse to provide banks with a better understanding of their customers, allowing them to approach those customers with customized offers for products or financial services. In addition, a case study of a prototype of a check image data mining system is presented demonstrating the feasibility of this technology. The paper will also touch on the implications of this business application to consumer data privacy.