The Aisle Is an Advertising Network: Retail Media, Shopper Data, and the Rights Inside a Basket
By Casey Scott McKay ·
Retailers discovered that the most valuable thing they own is not the shelf but the record of what left it. This article explains what a retail media network actually is as a legal structure, why shopper data is not property and what that means for the contracts that substitute for ownership, and how the sale-of-personal-information definitions in the state privacy statutes catch arrangements nobody thinks of as sales. It works through clean rooms, measurement claims, supplier terms, the pixel and wiretap litigation wave, and the parties whose interests are structurally opposed. It closes with the question every retail media contract should answer and usually does not.
IP and Technology > Privacy Data Security | Article | Published 8 June 2025 - Updated 8 August 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
What a retailer discovered
For most of commercial history a retailer made money on the difference between what it paid for goods and what it sold them for. That business has a structural problem: the margin is thin, the competition is intense, and the customer will drive a further mile to save a small amount.
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