Privacy Obligations Must Match Advertising Reach

Following recent California enforcement actions, notably settlements with Disney and Sling TV, U.S. regulators are establishing a precedent that businesses must ensure opt-outs apply to any profile or cross-device recognition they use for advertising. The article argues that if a company can connect devices to target ads, it must also propagate and enforce opt-outs across those same profiles and partner systems. This is framed as an engineering and infrastructure challenge — not merely a legal checkbox — because many consent management tools record choices only at the browser or account level and do not automatically unify or notify downstream ad-tech partners. The author, Max Anderson (co-founder at Ketch), warns that responsibility cannot be outsourced even if identity matching is bought from third parties.