I recently attended the Westminster Media Forum policy conference, Regulation of advertising tech in the UK, 28th January 2020. On 20th June 2019, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) released their Update report into adtech and real time bidding. The ICO are the regulator in the UK responsible for data protection and, because adtech and real time bidding (RTB) use personal data to advertise to consumers, the ICO are looking into the adtech sector and RTB as a priority.

Adtech is a term used to describe a range of software and tools that are used by brands and agencies for the purpose of digital advertising activities. RTB is an automated process and works by allowing advertisers to compete for available digital advertising space in milliseconds.  Everyday billions of online adverts are placed on webpages and in apps. 

Online advertising works by specifically selecting ads to appear on websites you visit.  Until recently, people have had little understanding of why they see the adverts that appear when they surf online.  When you visit a website, as the site is loading the website publisher auctions the available advertising space on the page that you are viewing in real time.  This process happens in milliseconds and relies on advertisers seeing information about you.  This can include the device you are viewing the website from, the country that you are in, and more detailed information about your browsing history that illustrates what your perceived interests are. 

Since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, organisations that use and share people's personal data must, by law, be transparent and keep that information securely.  Elizabeth Denham states in the report:

"We list our concerns - that the creation and sharing of personal data profiles about people, to the scale we've seen, feels disproportionate, intrusive and unfair, particularly when people are often unaware it is happening."

Elizabeth Denham

The internet is currently a free resource used by billions of people all over the world.  A large proportion of the services that we enjoy for free are funded by online advertising.  John Mew, Chief Executive at IAB UK, noted that 84% of people say that they would rather have free internet with advertising rather than have to pay.  In a separate survey, the ICO found that when it was explained to people roughly how adtech works, consent dropped from 2/3 to 1/3, indicating that when people understand how it works, they're not happy about it.

On the surface, the exchange of free services for targeted ads seems reasonable.  But, when the process is made more transparent, people begin to feel uncomfortable with it. The RTB system also puts children at risk of seeing harmful advertising while online, which could negatively impact on their health and wellbeing.

Chloe Grutchfield, Co-Founder, Product and Data, Redbud, revealed that with a website that heavily monetises their advertising, you can see up to 500 vendors looking to drop cookies based on people's search preferences.  So essentially, some aspect of your personal information is viewed by 500 companies who bid, based on that information, for their advert to be placed on the next page that you visit as it is loading.

With the introduction of the GDPR, internet users are being overwhelmed with cookie consent requests with every new website they visit.  As highlighted by Alex Hazell, Head of UK Legal, Acxiom:

"Cookies provide technical consent but it's not meaningful."

One of the key issues with people providing consent in this way is the lack of education surrounding personal data and how it is used.  Liza Bales, Privacy and Data Policy, Facebook, commented on the timeliness of presenting tools to users.  Facebook found that if they tried to push new tools aimed at helping users understand how their data is used at the wrong time, the user would not engage with the information.

Guy Parker, Chief Executive, Advertising Standards Authority, gave an update on the ground-breaking work the ASA are carrying out using avatars, which mimic the profiles of children of different age groups to investigate the placement of online ads.  Read our blog Regulating Online Advertising in the Digital Ecosystem for more.  He reported that the ASA have already taken action against dodgy gambling ads and badly placed HFSS ads targeting the child profiles of the avatars.

Online advertising clearly has significant benefits for businesses and services, and the people wanting to access those services.  But, with the lack of transparency and the considerable knowledge gap where the general public are concerned, establishing consumer trust through education will be challenging.

Post Contributor:

Caitriona Fitzsimons Digital Reporter