behavioral advertising
Meta’s behavioral ads will finally face GDPR privacy reckoning in January
Major privacy complaints targeting the legality of Meta’s core advertising business model in Europe have finally been settled via a dispute resolution mechanism baked into the EU’s General Data Protection…
Meta urged to pay reparations for Facebook’s role in Rohingya genocide
Meta is facing a fresh call to pay reparations to the Rohingya people for Facebook’s role in inciting ethnic violence in Myanmar. A new report by Amnesty International — providing…
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Adtech’s compliance theatre is headed to Europe’s top court
For those watching the slow motion unpicking of surveillance advertising in the European Union here’s a fresh development on the long and winding road to a long-overdue legal reckoning: Multiple grounds for appeal lodged by industry body, the IAB Europe, against a breach finding earlier this year against its self-proclaimed “best practice” framework for obtaining…
Sensitive data ruling by Europe’s top court could force broad privacy reboot
A ruling put out yesterday by the European Union’s top court could have major implications for online platforms that use background tracking and profiling to target users with behavioral ads…
TikTok ‘pauses’ privacy policy switch in Europe after regulatory scrutiny
TikTok has agreed to pause a controversial privacy policy update in Europe, which had been due to happen tomorrow, and would have meant the platform stopped asking users for their…
EU unveils tougher industry Code to combat disinformation
The European Commission has just taken the wraps off a beefed up industry Code of Practice for tackling online disinformation across the EU. Signatories to the Code — who include…
Report reveals Big Tech’s last minute lobbying to weaken EU rules
A new report has peeled back the curtain on big tech’s frenzied lobbying of European Union lawmakers as they finalize a major series of updates to the bloc’s digital rulebook.…
On Meta’s ‘regulatory headwinds’ and adtech’s privacy reckoning
What does Meta/Facebook’s favorite new phrase to bandy around in awkward earnings calls — as it warns of “regulatory headwinds” cutting into its future growth — actually mean when you…
Behavioral ad industry gets hard reform deadline after IAB’s TCF found to breach Europe’s GDPR
A piece of compliance theatre that the behavioral ad industry has for years passed off as “a cross-industry best practice standard” — claiming the consent management platform allowed advertisers to…
Europe’s top privacy regulator calls for ban on political microtargeting
The European Union’s chief privacy and data protection regulator has urged EU policymakers to strengthen proposed ‘transparency’ rules for political ads — calling instead for meaningful limits that would fully…
The European Parliament has definitively backed major limits on behavioral advertising during a plenary vote on amendments to the pan-EU Digital Services Act (DSA). The move looks set to crank…
Over 30 civil society organizations, pro-privacy tech businesses and European startups are making a last-ditch pitch to try to convince EU lawmakers to put stricter limits on surveillance advertising as…
Europe’s digital rules reboot could tame Facebook, whistleblower Frances Haugen tells EU Parliament
In her latest turn in front of a phalanx of lawmakers, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen gave a polished testimony to the European Parliament on Monday — following similar sessions in…
Is this the beginning of the end for the hated tracking cookie consent pop-up? A flagship framework used by Google and scores of other advertisers for gathering claimed consent from…
A new research paper written by a team of academics and computer scientists from Spain and Austria has demonstrated that it’s possible to use Facebook’s targeting tools to deliver an…
At social media hearing, lawmakers circle algorithm-focused Section 230 reform
Rather than a CEO-slamming sound bite free-for-all, Tuesday’s big tech hearing on algorithms aimed for more of a listening session vibe — and in that sense it mostly succeeded. The…
EU plan for risk-based AI rules to set fines as high as 4% of global turnover, per leaked draft
European Union lawmakers who are drawing up rules for applying artificial intelligence are considering fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover (or €20M, if greater) for a set…
FTC settles with mobile ad company Tapjoy over deceptive practices
Mobile advertising company Tapjoy has settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it was misleading consumers about the in-app rewards they could earn in mobile games. According…
Apple takes aim at adtech hysteria over iOS app tracking change
Apple has used a speech to European lawmakers and privacy regulators today to come out jabbing at what SVP Craig Federighi described as dramatic, “outlandish” and “false” claims being made…
UK’s ICO faces legal action after closing adtech complaint with nothing to show for it
The UK’s data watchdog is facing a legal challenge after it took the decision to quietly close a complaint against the adtech industry’s high velocity background trading of personal data.…
The EU parliament has backed a call for tighter regulations on behavioral ads (aka microtargeting) in favor of less intrusive, contextual forms of advertising — urging Commission lawmakers to also…
Facebook won’t ban political ads, prefers to keep screwing democracy
It’s 2020 — a key election year in the U.S. — and Facebook is doubling down on its policy of letting people pay it to fuck around with democracy. Despite…
Twitter’s political ads ban is a distraction from the real problem with platforms
Sometimes it feels as if Internet platforms are turning everything upside down, from politics to publishing, culture to commerce, and of course swapping truth for lies. This week’s bizarro reversal was…
Mental health websites in Europe found sharing user data for ads
Research by a privacy rights advocacy group has found popular mental health websites in the EU are sharing users’ sensitive personal data with advertisers. Europeans going online to seek support…
Targeted ads offer little extra value for online publishers, study suggests
How much value do online publishers derive from behaviorally targeted advertising that uses privacy-hostile tracking technologies to determine which advert to show a website user? A new piece of research…
GDPR adtech complaints keep stacking up in Europe
It’s a year since Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force and leaky adtech is now facing privacy complaints in four more European Union markets. This ups the…
A privacy complaint targeting the behavioral advertising industry has a new piece of evidence that shows the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) shedding doubt on whether it’s possible to obtain informed consent from…
Mozilla streamlines Firefox tracker blocking controls
Mozilla has rolled out what it bills as enhanced and simplified controls for Firefox users to manage how they block trackers. An update to its browser software, released today, offers…
Most Facebook users still in the dark about its creepy ad practices, Pew finds
A study by the Pew Research Center suggests most Facebook users are still in the dark about how the company tracks and profiles them for ad-targeting purposes. Pew found three-quarters…
