【2003 Archives】

President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign website recently added language that gives it permission to use “beacons” to track the location of mobile devices.

And if you don't like it003 Archives It's now harder to sue the Trump campaign for privacy violations.

The location tracking addendum was added to the campaign's privacy policy under the “Information You Choose to Provide to Us” section. The change was first noticed in July by Campaign Monitor, an online tool that tracks significant changes made to 2020 presidential campaign websites.

“We may also collect other information based on your location and your Device’s proximity to 'beacons' and other similar proximity systems, including, for example, the strength of the signal between the beacon and your Device and the duration that your Device is near the beacon,” reads the portion added to the Trump campaign’s website privacy policy.

In short, “beacons” are small physical wireless devices that ping smartphones to detect users’ proximity to a location.

“A beacon is essentially a small Bluetooth radio transmitter,” a spokesperson for Beaconstac, a company that utilizes beacons for marketing campaigns, told Mashable. “Political campaigns stand to gain a lot from leveraging beacons. Most campaigns build a specific app or rely on local apps to target their voter base. A simple integration can convert any app into a beacon-aware app which can then send voters contextual, location-based messages.”

Using beacons, campaigns can micro-target voters. For example, they can encourage voters to go to the polls based on their location. Campaigns can also use this technology to collect additional data by messaging users with questionnaires, email signup forms, and surveys.

The exact same language regarding location-based tracking was previously removed from the Trump campaign website in May 2017. After CBS News asked the Trump campaign's digital director, Brad Parscale, about how the campaign planned to use beacons, mentions of the technology no longer appeared in its privacy policy.

As the 2020 election inches closer, that section of the privacy policy has now been restored to the site.

The “pro-surveillance” policy is significant, according to Peter Bray, CEO of Deep Dive Duck, a company that uses machine learning to monitor important website changes and created Campaign Monitor.

“Campaign Monitor detects and curates key policy changes from candidates' sites,” said Bray. “Subtle edits often mark key strategic changes in a campaign. Campaign Monitor lets us see candidates' policy 'sausage making' in action.”

“In light of heightened concerns around privacy and tracking, it's notable that the campaign explicitly calls out more expansive visitor tracking,” Bray told Mashable.

Data privacy issues have run amok in the tech industry in recent years.

Facebook is still dealing with the blowback from the Cambridge Analyticascandal, in which a political consulting firm working with the Trump campaign in 2016 illicitly acquired the personal data of tens of millions of the social network’s users.

Google was suedover location tracking recently, after a report found that the company was tracking iPhone and Android phones even when the "Location History" feature was turned off. Another report found that Google could use beacons to track phones with Bluetooth turned off.

Speaking of legal matters, Trump’s 2020 campaign website also made changes to its terms of service.

“Deep Dive Duck detected that Trump's terms added an arbitration requirement to settle disputes,” Bray told us. “Arbitration clauses are sometimes viewed with suspicion as they can significantly limit legal recourse. What's the point of Trump taking such a hard stance with regular web visitors?”

According to the Trump 2020’s terms of service, disputes with the campaign must go through an arbitration process before a single arbiter. Users forfeit the right to a jury trial or class action, among other legal avenues.

“Many candidates are lawyers -- and all have significant legal teams,” Bray continued. “As such, Campaign Monitor often detects notable changes in Terms and Conditions and other legal consents. Do they comply with EU's GDPR or California's recent privacy legislation? Do they unduly favor the candidate...or regular visitors to the site?”

“These tell important stories about each candidate.”