
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know all about the EU’s General Data Protection Regulationor GDPR. This game-changing law expands the data protection rights of EU citizens and puts some huge fines out there for non-compliance. Add in the significant ambiguity around proposed revisions to EU cookie law, sprinkle a dash of confusion over how laws will be enforced by regulators across different EU member states, and you get a big mess. Probably the only growing consensus is that, while this is a big problem across the board, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are going to have a much easier time of it.
No doubt, digital advertising’s three largest players have advantages. With consumer relationships across devices, proprietary ad-tech and plenty of in-house resources, Google, Facebook and Amazon have many of the tools needed to gain consumer consent for data collection and provide consumers with visibility and control over that data.
But it is overly simplistic to believe that Google, Facebook and Amazon are the only potential winners here. Most EU authorities aren’t out to destroy digital advertising or further entrench its dominant players. Rather, they are asking for products and services to begin with the notion that privacy is a fundamental human right. Publishers and brands who embrace transparent data collection practices and work earnestly to give consumers real choices about the collection and use of their data are well-positioned to gain consumer (and regulator) trust.
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