Scope: ePrivacy

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Empirical study reveals the massive economic drop in ads without tracking

Important read! Empirical study shows a significant reduction in value of ads without tracking. Anyone promoting tracking-free contextual ads over profile-based advertising (such as the EDPB) really needs to consider the fact that *this doesn’t work for everyone* and it will have massive repercussions for the digital economy. Let’s look at some of the findings […]

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The ironic reality of automated recruitment matching algorithms

Out of the blue, I just received an invitation to apply for a job as Tax legal advisor. Contrary to their belief (hopefully not yours), I have developed a different kind of expertise (maybe I should offer my services to help them improve their understanding of their data). If, unlike them, you think I might […]

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Op-Ed: A critical analysis of the EDPB’s “Pay or Consent” Opinion

Illustration: Dall-E rendering of just how potentially evil the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and certain privacy rights campaigners view the “Pay or Consent” approach + large companies. I didn’t try to get any drug cartel references in there, though as a lawyer acting for adtech companies I have been likened to a drug cartel […]

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Registration open: legal strategies for tomorrow’s adtech and metrics rules

Registration now open for our 2h webinar on Adtech & Metrics: EU Law Evolutions and Tomorrow’s Legal Strategies! (16 May, 3pm CET) – Are you in the adtech & metrics industry or do you work for a digital platform or publisher? And are you involved in product design, Legal, Compliance, privacy or data protection? This […]

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Developing tomorrow’s legal compliance strategies for digital advertising

Adtech & metrics: EU law evolutions and tomorrow�s legal strategies” – tentative title for our next webinar mid-May, in the form of a 2h virtual & complimentary workshop. Measurement, attribution, monetisation; legal grounds and technologies. A number of key topics would be examined from a legal perspective (taking into account the broader data protection framework […]

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Why target ads don’t inherently require consent under the IAB Europe ruling

No, consent is *not* required for real-time bidding or targeted ads pursuant to the CJEU’s IAB Europe / TCF judgment. Why not? Because the paragraph where the CJEU suggests this is not part of the scope of the responses, so it’s an “obiter dictum” – that’s what it’s called when a court says something that […]

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Is the European Commission fundamentally misunderstanding contextual ads?

Did I get this right? Thierry Breton at the European Commission is suggesting that a specific form of advertising (“contextual” – i.e. ads based on limited data) is required by the DMA, as an alternative to another (profile-based advertising), and that a “consent or pay” approach might not be permitted (the Commission apparently has “serious […]

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Why server connection telemetry isn’t automatically personal data under the GDPR

Another adtech discussion showing that not all information gleaned through server connections is personal data under the GDPR (or even the CCPA’s broad “personal information” concept). [Nor is it / should it be automatically covered by ePrivacy rules] In this case, it was about which data points are actually being used, by whom and who […]

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Deconstructing the logical flaws in noyb’s automotive consent or pay allegory

Getting some serious “You wouldn’t steal a car”* vibes from NOYB’s “Imagine having to pay for privacy in your own car” consent-or-pay allegory. I have been advising on the idea of “consent or pay” (or “pay or data”, “pay or OK” or however you wish to call it) for a few years now, and the […]

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Why the corporate data protection community needs a stronger voice against campaigners

The privacy discourse is often one-sided: regulators and campaigners are vocal (“fundamental rights violated”, “illegal consent”), and few want to push back in public (lawyers because they are not keen on voicing their opinion, businesses because they fear drawing attention to themselves) – even though the GDPR *allows* interferences with privacy and data protection rights […]

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