Adobe’s Flash Player includes a local storage feature that enables websites and applications to remember consumer data, such as log-in credentials and form information.  However, media and data companies’ use of this feature, which is sometimes referred to as a “Flash cookie,” has been the subject of a number of recent lawsuits.  Specifically, plaintiffs allege that defendants used the local storage feature to keep regular HTTP cookies alive, even after a user deleted them.  

Earlier this week, Adobe announced that it is taking steps to improve consumers’ control over the information that is stored in local storage.  This move follows the FTC’s request in its recently released preliminary staff report for companies to “create better tools to allow consumers to control the collection and use of their online browsing data.”  Adobe’s announcement is another example that industry is taking the FTC’s call for “do-not-track” mechanisms seriously. 

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Photo of Lindsey Tonsager Lindsey Tonsager

Lindsey Tonsager co-chairs the firm’s global Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. She advises clients in their strategic and proactive engagement with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and state attorneys general on proposed changes to data protection…

Lindsey Tonsager co-chairs the firm’s global Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. She advises clients in their strategic and proactive engagement with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and state attorneys general on proposed changes to data protection laws, and regularly represents clients in responding to investigations and enforcement actions involving their privacy and information security practices.

Lindsey’s practice focuses on helping clients launch new products and services that implicate the laws governing the use of artificial intelligence, data processing for connected devices, biometrics, online advertising, endorsements and testimonials in advertising and social media, the collection of personal information from children and students online, e-mail marketing, disclosures of video viewing information, and new technologies.

Lindsey also assesses privacy and data security risks in complex corporate transactions where personal data is a critical asset or data processing risks are otherwise material. In light of a dynamic regulatory environment where new state, federal, and international data protection laws are always on the horizon and enforcement priorities are shifting, she focuses on designing risk-based, global privacy programs for clients that can keep pace with evolving legal requirements and efficiently leverage the clients’ existing privacy policies and practices. She conducts data protection assessments to benchmark against legal requirements and industry trends and proposes practical risk mitigation measures.