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The Data Ownership Geolocation Quicksand
“At an accident scene, your cell carrier could tell your insurance company how fast you were traveling before the accident,” Rasch wrote. “In fact, every time your cell phone showed that you were traveling in excess of the speed limit, a citation or fine could be issued — much like rental car companies use GPS built into their cars to enforce the contractual provisions prohibiting taking the car out of the country.”
The most common age-restricted products—tobacco, alcohol, some contraceptives, etc.—won’t apply. But what about downloadable adult videos? Different states—and, for that matter, cities, counties and municipalities—can pass different laws determining what ages are needed for various products. A retailer may need to know what jurisdiction that call is coming from to determine what rules to apply.
We then get into the thorny question of “What happens if the consumer’s cell phone travels from one jurisdiction to another during the transaction?” Someone will need to decide the precise point of a transaction that will be used to determine jurisdiction for that purchase.
This is similar to Age Restrictions. State tax collection is often dictated by whether the retailer has a significant facility in that state. That cellphone moving from one state to the next might cause all kinds of issues.
Some software—sophisticated encryption is an easy example—can not legally be exported. With shipping, that’s easy. Online, a question is simply asked. But with mobile, does the retailer have an obligation to check?
For almost any of these examples, retailers would have a legitimate reason—far beyond a consumer opting in for customization—to capture location. Indeed, not only is opt-in not necessary for these data grabs, they can’t be sought because the data capture is mandatory. Does that change the game rules? Should the line be drawn at “If the consumer didn’t opt in, we must use it for the original purpose and then delete?”
Who would enforce such a rule? For that matter, should it even be enforced?
For those instances where the consumer does voluntarily opt in, is that forever? Is that for any company to use that data for any purpose?
Much needs to be worked out—legally, politically and morally—before retailers should aggressively start thinking about leveraging geolocation. But wrestling with these kinds of questions is probably a decent place to start.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
