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 helps national and multinational clients in a broad range of industries anticipate and effectively evaluate legal and reputational risks under federal and state data privacy and communications laws.

In addition to assisting clients engage strategically with the Federal Trade Commission, the…

Lindsey Tonsager helps national and multinational clients in a broad range of industries anticipate and effectively evaluate legal and reputational risks under federal and state data privacy and communications laws.

In addition to assisting clients engage strategically with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, and other federal and state regulators on a proactive basis, she has experience helping clients respond to informal investigations and enforcement actions, including by self-regulatory bodies such as the Digital Advertising Alliance and Children’s Advertising Review Unit.

Ms. Tonsager’s practice focuses on helping clients launch new products and services that implicate the laws governing the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising and social media, the collection of personal information from children and students online, behavioral advertising, e-mail marketing, artificial intelligence the processing of “big data” in the Internet of Things, spectrum policy, online accessibility, compulsory copyright licensing, telecommunications and new technologies.

Ms. Tonsager also conducts privacy and data security diligence in complex corporate transactions and negotiates agreements with third-party service providers to ensure that robust protections are in place to avoid unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of customer data and other types of confidential information. She regularly assists clients in developing clear privacy disclosures and policies―including website and mobile app disclosures, terms of use, and internal social media and privacy-by-design programs.