Google’s lead EU regulator opens formal privacy probe of its adtech

Google’s lead data regulator in Europe has opened a formal investigation into its processing of personal data in the context of its online Ad Exchange, TechCrunch has learnt.

This follows a privacy complaint pertaining to adtech’s real-timing bidding (RTB) system filed under Europe’s GDPR framework last year.

The statutory inquiry into Google’s adtech that’s being opened by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), cites section 110 of Ireland’s Data Protection Act 2018, which means that the watchdog suspects infringement — and will now investigate its suspicions.

The DPC writes that the inquiry is “to establish whether processing of personal data carried out at each stage of an advertising transaction is in compliance with the relevant provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, including the lawful basis for processing, the principles of transparency and data minimisation, as well as Google’s retention practices”.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment. Update: A Google spokesperson said: “We will engage fully with the DPC’s investigation and welcome the opportunity for further clarification of Europe’s data protection rules for real-time bidding. Authorised buyers using our systems are subject to stringent policies and standards.”

As we reported earlier this week complaints about the RTB system used by online advertisers have been stacking up across Europe. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/gdpr-adtech-complaints-keep-stacking-up-in-europe/

The relevant complaint in this instance was lodged last fall by Dr Johnny Ryan of private browser Brave, and alleges “wide-scale and systemic breaches of the data protection regime” by Google and others in the behavioral advertising industry.

Source:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/22/googles-lead-eu-regulator-opens-formal-privacy-probe-of-its-adtech/

#Google #DeleteGoogle #EU #regulators #privacyprobe #adtech
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Google's short-lived data-advantage

There's a lot of ways to think about the movement to tame Big Tech, but one of the more useful divisions to explore is the "Night of the Comet" people versus the "Don't Believe the Criti-Hype" people.

This is a division over the value of the data that Google, Facebook and other large tech firms have amassed over the years – data on their users, sure, but also data on the advertisers and publishers they serve with their ad-tech platforms.

Big Tech companies and their investors are really bullish on the value of this commercial data-advantage: they say that spying on us – the users – lets them manipulate our opinions and activities so that we buy or believe the things their advertisers pay them to push.

More quietly, their investors believe that the data-advantage extends to publishers and advertisers, a deep storehouse of data that makes it effectively impossible for anyone else to do the precision targeted that Big Tech manages, which is why they have such fat margins.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/11/halflife/#minatory-legend

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Google gamed its ad auction system to favor its own ads, generated $213 million

Google used a secret program called "Bernanke" that used historical bidding data to give its ad-buying system a major advantage over its rivals, an antitrust lawsuit filing claims, a program that earned the company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Google is in the process of dealing with an antitrust lawsuit from a group of state attorneys general, about its advertising technology and ad industry dominance. In a response to the lawsuit filed by Google in early April, the search company accidentally let slip of some of its behind-the-scenes work.

In the initial version of the filing, seen by the Wall Street Journal, Google failed to properly redact some sections, revealing the secretive business elements. A federal judge allowed Google to refile the properly-redacted version under seal.

The unredacted elements refers to a program called "Project Bernanke," a system that Google allegedly kept secret from publishers and other rivals. Bernanke was also viewed as an antitrust issue by the states in the lawsuit, due to how it operated.

The antitrust lawsuit centers around how Google's ownership of a platform for selling online advertising, as well as its position as an ad buyer for its own properties, was a problem. By being both an owner and a client, Google was thought to be able to game the system due to having access to data that ad buyers wouldn't necessarily receive.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/04/11/google-bernanke-revealed-in-ad-business-antitrust-lawsuit-error

#google #DeleteGoogle #AdTech #AdBusiness #lawsuit #antitrust #bernanke
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