Scrutiny on Tracking Pixels Signals Shift for Data Collection

A widely employed online tracking tool is creating headaches for in-house counsel, with decades-old laws being revived to litigate individual privacy battles and regulators homing in on new commercial surveillance norms.

Pixels, the technology in question, are pieces of tracking software that businesses embed on their websites to better assess the success of advertising campaigns on those platforms. They are provided for free by companies including Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. But unlike cookies, another type of tracking software, they can’t as easily be blocked with privacy software.

Thanks to a wave of lawsuits and the Federal Trade ...