The mandate was less about avoiding potential fines than making sure the brand’s agency took data privacy seriously, the executive said. They hope imposing more liability on their agencies will push them to take every precaution when collecting and using consumer data. Five years ago, only a handful of large clients were making detailed demands around data privacy liability, he added. Hard LinesIn the past, agencies’ liability to their clients for privacy violations was sometimes capped at a certain amount of fees agencies would need to return to a client. The clause in an agency-client contract about who is responsible for a data violation involving the publisher is a gray area, Mr. Francis said.

Source: Wall Street Journal November 08, 2018 18:22 UTC