Case 1:21-cv-00824 Document 1 Filed 08/25/21 Page 44 of 71
111.
A 2012 chart of the mobile digital marketplace,64 attached hereto as Exhibit 4,
indicates that hundreds of intermediaries from location trackers to data aggregators to ad networks “touch” the data that is used to track and profile an individual in a given online transaction. 112.
By 2017, the number of unique companies in this space swelled to almost 5,000, as
shown in Exhibit 5, attached hereto.65 113.
In the course of disclosing Personal Information to select and serve an
advertisement (or to conduct any third-party analytics or otherwise monetize user data), the developer and its partner SDKs pass identifying user data to an ever-increasing host of thirdparties, who, in turn, may pass along that same data to their affiliates. Each entity may use that data to track users over time and across the Internet, on a multitude of increasingly complex online pathways, with the shared goal of targeting users with advertisements. 114.
The ability to serve targeted advertisements to (or to otherwise profile) a specific
user no longer turns upon obtaining the kinds of data with which most consumers are familiar (name, email addresses, etc.), but instead on the surreptitious collection of persistent identifiers or geolocation, which are used in conjunction with other data points to build robust online profiles. These data points are better tracking tools than traditional identifiers because they are unique to each individual, making them more akin to a Social Security Number. Once such uniquely identifiable data are sent “into the marketplace,” they are exposed to—and thereafter may be collected and used by—an almost innumerable set of third parties. 115.
Permitting technology companies to obtain children’s Personal Information
exposes those children to targeted advertising. The ad networks, informed by the surreptitious Laura Stampler, “This RIDICULOUS Graphic Shows How Messy Mobile Marketing Is Right Now,” Business Insider (May 23, 2012), http://www.businessinsider.com/this-ridiculous-graphicshows-how-the-insanely-complicated-world-of-mobile-marketing-works-2012-5 (last accessed July 30, 2021). 65 Scott Brinker, “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic” Chief Marketing Technology Blog (May 10, 2017), https://chiefmartec.com/2017/05/marketing-techniology-landscapesupergraphic-2017/ (last accessed July 30, 2021). 64
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