Ad Tech

On September 27 and 28, 2021, the Swedish Data Protection Forum (Forum för Dataskydd) hosted the 2021 edition of the Nordic Privacy Arena (“Operationalising Data Privacy – Challenges, best practices, and success stories”) in Stockholm, Sweden. This hybrid event brought together privacy practitioners, watchdogs, and academics to debate some of the most pressing issues regarding […]

Law and legislation take the lead in setting standards for protecting personal data, but the policies and norms established by companies also play a central role. This has been the case particularly for global platforms providing the services used by billions in the course of daily life. Apple’s 2020 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) previewed a […]

By Pollyanna Sanderson (Policy Counsel), Katelyn Ringrose (Christopher Wolf Diversity Law Fellow) & Stacey Gray (Senior Policy Counsel)   Today, on the first day of a rapid-fire 2020 legislative session in the state of Washington, State Senator Carlyle has introduced a new version of the Washington Privacy Act (WPA). Legislators revealed the Act during a live press […]

Congress continues to hold data privacy hearings, including yesterday’s Understanding the Digital Advertising Ecosystem and the Impact of Data Privacy and Competition Policy. The continued debate over adtech practices is reaching a crescendo, making the case for quick action on a comprehensive federal privacy law that can set parameters for how personal data is collected, […]

This morning, Facebook announced that they will begin rolling out new requirements for its “Custom Audiences” targeting tool for advertisers. These updates are a useful step towards creating better user understanding of data flows both on Facebook and in the broader web, and enhancing the accountability of advertisers who use custom marketing lists.

In the world of consumer privacy, including the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile data, and advertising technologies (“Ad Tech”), it can often be difficult to measure real-world impact and conceptualize individual harms and benefits. Fortunately, academic researchers are increasingly focusing on these issues, leading to impressive scholarship from institutions such as the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, UC Berkeley School of Information, and many others, including non-profits and think tanks.

Fordham University’s Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP) just released the study, “Transparency and the Marketplace for Student Data,” which examines the practices of data brokers who buy and sell information about students. In the study, the authors describe existing privacy laws, map the commercial marketplace, and describe the challenges of understanding how data about students is collected and used.

The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) released its 2018 Code of Conduct yesterday, consolidating the rules for online and mobile behavioral advertising (interest-based advertising). NAI, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC, is the leading self-regulatory association for digital advertising, with over 100 members and a formalized internal review mechanism.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee (Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law) held a hearing to explore the FCC’s proposed privacy rules regulating Broadband Internet Access Service providers (a subset of Internet Service Providers, or ISPs).

On Monday, the FTC will be holding a workshop on cross-device tracking: how and why the advertising and marketing industries are using emerging technologies to track individual users across platforms and devices. The Future of Privacy Forum is releasing a helpful new report to understanding these technologies, entitled Cross Device: Understanding the State of State […]