online tracking
The U.K. government has published its final response to a data ‘reform’ consultation it kicked off last year, laying out how it intends to diverge from EU-based data protection rules.…
Report spotlights vast scale of adtech’s ‘biggest data breach’
New data about the real-time-bidding (RTB) system’s use of web users’ info for tracking and ad targeting, released today by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), suggests Google and…
UK’s CMA accepts Google’s post-cookie pledges, will ‘closely monitor’ Privacy Sandbox plan
The U.K.’s competition authority has accepted commitments from Google over how it develops the post-cookie future of interest-based ad targeting online under its self-styled “Privacy Sandbox” proposal. In an announcement…
In a fresh addition to incoming U.K. legislation that will set sweeping internet content rules for platforms, the government has revived a long-standing ambition to put porn websites behind age…
Google’s Privacy Sandbox targeted by fresh EU antitrust complaint
German publishers are the latest to band together to try to derail or at least delay Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” plan to end support for tracking cookies in Chrome via a…
UK privacy watchdog warns adtech the end of tracking is nigh
It’s been well over two years since the UK’s data protection watchdog warned the behavioural advertising industry it’s wildly out of control. The ICO hasn’t done anything to stop the…
After years of inaction against adtech, UK’s ICO calls for browser-level controls to fix ‘cookie fatigue’
In the latest quasi-throwback toward “do not track,” the U.K.’s data protection chief has come out in favor of a browser- and/or device-level setting to allow internet users to set…
The demise of browser cookies could create a Golden Age of digital marketing
There’s a new seat at the table in the great bargaining session between advertisers and technology giants. It’s occupied — for the first time — by the user.
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.…
Oracle and Salesforce hit with GDPR class action lawsuits over cookie tracking consent
The use of third party cookies for ad tracking and targeting by data broker giants Oracle and Salesforce is the focus of class action style litigation announced today in the…
German federal court squashes consent opt-outs for non-functional cookies
Yet another stake through the dark-patterned heart of consentless online tracking. Following a key cookie consent ruling by Europe’s top court last year, Germany’s Federal Court (BGH) has today handed…
Cookie consent still a compliance trash fire in latest watchdog peek
The latest confirmation of the online tracking industry’s continued flouting of EU privacy laws which — at least on paper — are supposed to protect citizens from consent-less digital surveillance…
Featured Article
What does a pandemic say about the tech we’ve built?
There’s a joke* being reshared on chat apps that takes the form of a multiple-choice question — asking who’s the leading force in workplace digital transformation? The red-lined punchline is not the CEO or CTO, but: C) COVID-19. There’s likely more than a grain of truth underpinning the quip. The novel coronavirus is pushing a…
Featured Article
Facebook’s latest ‘transparency’ tool doesn’t offer much — so we went digging
Just under a month ago Facebook switched on global availability of a tool which affords users a glimpse into the murky world of tracking that its business relies upon to profile users of the wider web for ad targeting purposes. Facebook is not going boldly into transparent daylight — but rather offering what privacy rights…
