Online marketing of prescription drugs, including behavioral targeting, tracking, profiling and retargeting, require federal safeguards–asap. Here’s one online marketer admitting his client actually engaged in pharma behavioral retargeting. They write [excerpt]: “One of our clients is a manufacturer of cancer related drugs. They were using retargeting aggressively…”
The column goes on to say that consumer complaints led the drug company to stop using behavioral targeting, but we should not permit a digital data collection “wild west” for the medical marketing business online. Marketers of such drugs, especially for life-threatening illnesses–should not be using behavioral marketing at all (unless the consumer/patient affirmatively consents).
