Groupon IPO: "the regulation" of "cookies and other current online advertising practices could adversely affect our business"

Groupon's IPO filed at the SEC raises a number of key issues, including the need to protect Internet and mobile privacy in the emerging era of hyper-local tracking and targeting.  For example, the IPO refers to the recent hearings on mobile privacy chaired by Sen. Rockefeller and also Sen. Franken [ "For example, recently there have been Congressional hearings and increased attention to the capture and use of location-based information relating to users of smartphones and other mobile devices."]  Here are some other key exerpts, including data on how much money location-based digital marketing will soon deliver.  Note too Groupon's partners, including gaming platform Zynga, Yahoo, Microsoft and eBay which raise further privacy concerns.  Groupon's work in China also illustrates the role U.S. digital marketing companies play regarding data collection in the vital Asia-Pacific market:

Federal, state and international governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications inherent in the use of third-party web "cookies" for behavioral advertising. The regulation of these cookies and other current online advertising practices could adversely affect our business…   Groupon primarily addresses the worldwide local commerce markets in the leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail sectors. According to Euromonitor, the leisure, recreation and foodservice market is expected to be $1.4 trillion in the U.S. and $5.3 trillion internationally in 2011. The retail market is expected to be $2.9 trillion in the U.S. and $12.2 trillion internationally in 2011. We believe a substantial portion of these expenditures on leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail will be spent with local merchants. Groupon also addresses the online advertising market serving these merchants. The size of the U.S. online advertising market is estimated to be $51.9 billion in 2011, of which $16.1 billion is estimated to be spent by local merchants according to Borrell Associates…in February 2011, we entered into a partnership with TCH Burgundy Limited, or Tencent, a Chinese internet company, to operate a Chinese e-commerce website. We have also signed partnership agreements with companies such as eBay, Microsoft, Yahoo and Zynga, pursuant to which these partners display, promote and distribute our deals to their users in exchange for a share of the revenue generated from our deals….We distribute our deals directly through several platforms: a daily email, our websites, our mobile applications and social networks. We also utilize various online affiliates to display and promote Groupon deals on their websites, as well as agreements with several large online brands to distribute our deals. Our large online affiliates include eBay, Microsoft, Yahoo and Zynga. Other partnerships allow us to distribute daily deals to a partner's user base… In addition, we have partnered with thousands of smaller online affiliates.