Landmark case vs the adtech industry

Yesterday, a data breach complaint was filed with several data protection authorities in the European Union by Dr Johnny Ryan of Brave (the private web browser); Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group; and Michael Veale of University College London. A post on the Brave website explains the basis of the action as follows:

"Every time a person visits a website and is shown a “behavioural” ad on a website, intimate personal data that describes each visitor, and what they are watching online, is broadcast to tens or hundreds of companies.

"Advertising technology companies broadcast these data widely in order to solicit potential advertisers’ bids for the attention of the specific individual visiting the website.A data breach occurs because this broadcast, known as an “bid request” in the online industry, fails to protect these intimate data against unauthorized access. Under the GDPR this is unlawful."

How the data protection authorities will resolve this complaint will have significant implications not only on data privacy online but also on the business models of advertising technology companies and platforms such as Google and Facebook.

For more information about this case, please see the links below:

• Filing with the UK's ICO

• Filing with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner

• Report on behavioral advertising and personal data

#GDPR #personaldatabreach #adtech #Google #Facebook #advertising