Ending illegal online advertising
When you see an advertisement online, chances are that Real-Time Bidding advertising systems (RTB AdTech) have just auctioned your personal data, illegally, to hundreds of companies vying for your attention.
The highest bidder serves you their ad, but winners and losers alike collect your data and combine it with other datasets to build sophisticated profiles about you.
The problem with online advertising
What kind of personal data do AdTech companies collect? Everything from your geolocation, political beliefs and sexual preferences to your browsing habits and information about your devices.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) grants individuals powerful data rights including the right to retrieve, delete or revoke consent for the personal data companies hold. When RTB systems broadcast your personal data to thousands of faceless companies, your data rights become impossible to use.
In 2018 ORG’s executive director Jim Killock joined Dr. Johnny Ryan of Brave & Michael Veale of University College London in a joint complaint against Google and IAB. These companies provide what’s known as the framework for authorised buyers that AdTech companies operate within.
In a major win, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) responded to the complaint in June 2019 agreeing that RTB’s collection of data is “taking place unlawfully at the point of collection.”
Despite agreeing with the central argument of the complaint, the ICO has failed to enforce the law. In May 2020, a year and half after the initial complaint, the ICO announced it was pausing its investigation so as not to put extra pressure on the advertising industry during Covid-19. Then they dropped the investigation altogether. In early 2021 the ICO’s investigation into AdTech resumed, yet inexplicably our complaint remained closed. At the end of 2021, the ICO again confirmed AdTech is operating unlawfully, but failed to act.
Open Rights Group has taken the ICO to court. Support our legal action today.