Clear Channel’s billboards will start tracking consumers in Europe

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings’ Radar tracking technology, which gives advertisers access to anonymized mobile phone data about people who pass by billboards, is launching in Europe next month, the Financial Times reported. The outdoor ad-tracking program has been in the US for four years, but Clear Channel waited to launch in Europe so it could meet the EU’s stricter privacy regulations. William Eccleshare, CEO of Clear Channel’s international division, told the FT that Radar, which he stressed relied on data that was “very well anonymized,” can see and follow people’s movements into a store, follow what they purchase, and look at viewing habits if someone, say, passed by an outdoor ad for a Netflix show. When Clear Channel launched... Continue reading…