Massachusetts Mobile Ad Company Won’t Target Patients

A digital advertising company can’t target people with advertising based on their private medical conditions without consent under a no-fault settlement announced April 4 by Massachusetts’ attorney general.

The settlement reached over the use of GPS technology around health-care facilities also prevents Copley Advertising LLC from tracking consumers’ locations near or within medical facilities or disclosing their locations to third-party advertisers.

The state alleged that Copley set virtual fences—a practice known as “geofencing"—around reproductive health clinics and methadone clinics in Columbus, Ohio; New York; Pittsburgh; Richmond, Va. and St. Louis that triggered ads, including messages about abortion alternatives, to the ...