The health care company Abbott Laboratories failed to fully
comply with the ad industry's self-regulatory privacy code, according to an opinion issued Tuesday by an industry watchdog.
Abbott allegedly allowed outside companies to collect consumer data
for ad-serving purposes from numerous sites it operated, but failed to offer "enhanced" notices explaining online behavioral targeting.
Providing "enhanced" notice requires website operators
to add a separate link that takes visitors directly to an opt-out site. That separate link is supposed to appear on every page where data about visitors is collected.
Abbott's websites also
didn't include a promise to adhere to the industry's self-regulatory privacy code, according to the BBB National Programs Digital Advertising Accountability Program.
Companies that make that
representation, but then fail to follow the privacy code, could theoretically be accused by the Federal Trade Commission of engaging in a deceptive practice.
The watchdog examined numerous
Abbott-operated sites, including ones for Abbott Cardiovascular, Elecare, Ensure, FreeStyle, FreeStyle Libre, Glucerna, Juven, MitraClip, Nepro, Pedialyte, PediaSure, Similac, ZonePerfect, Abbott
Diabetes Care, Abbott Nutrition and the Abbott Store.
After hearing from the watchdog, Abbott added enhanced notice links to more than 60 of its websites, and promised to implement the
organization's other recommendations, according to the opinion.
Abbott also audited its mobile apps and concluded that one of them authorized third parties to collect data for behavioral
advertising.
Abbott “decommissioned the app that authorized this collection and removed it from the Google Play and Apple App stores,” the opinion states.