It is at the core of their business model: in 2020, Google racked in US$147 billion in advertising revenue, while Facebook took in US$84 billion. and are often described as an ad duopoly. So Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising”.
When opening a new investigation into Google’s advertising business, Commissioner Vestager noted that “Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising purposes, it sells advertising space and also acts as an online advertising intermediary. Google and Facebook are the undisputed winners of online advertising, controlling several steps of the 'supply chain' Sidenote In June 2021, the Commission’s Competition department opened up separate investigations into the advertising business of both Google and Facebook. This data is then used to micro-target users with advertising.įor Human Rights Watch, the proposal failed to “address the surveillance-based advertising business model that dominates today’s digital environment“, a business model it says is “fundamentally incompatible with human rights”. These profiles can have a variety of personal information, things that can be simply observed and others that are inferred: from age, to economic status, political views, religion, sexual orientation, mental and physical health, etc. Users’ online lives are mined for information and are then used to build up a user profile. Surveillance advertising – also known as tracking or behaviour ads – relies on the massive collection of data on people, from the websites they have visited, their search engine queries, the videos they watched, to the type of device they use, their location, other apps they have downloaded, purchasing history, etc. Surveillance advertising and the Digital Services Act Martin Schirdewan, MEP of the Left Group, told Corporate Europe Observatory that at the start of this process there was a “feeling that there could be a progressive majority” but then the pushback began. Their testimonies illustrate the pushback by tech, retail, and publishers' lobby groups that managed to sow doubt over the necessity of such a ban. All of them pointed at one main reason for the failure to ban surveillance ads: corporate lobbying, which had been aided by a particularly complex and frustrating negotiating process. For Human Rights Watch, the proposal failed to “address the surveillance-based advertising business model that dominates today’s digital environment“, a business model it says is “fundamentally incompatible with human rights”.Ĭorporate Europe Observatory spoke with several parliamentary insiders about this process. The text includes positive developments such as increased transparency over algorithms, and an end to 'dark patterns' that manipulate online users into giving consent to tracking.īut one particularly sore issue remained unresolved: the failure to agree on a ban for surveillance advertising. The European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), who led the process, finally achieved compromise in late December 2021. This week’s vote marks the end of intense parliamentary discussions over online content moderation, responsibilities of online markets, and higher transparency and accountability of very large online platforms (and who gets to be defined as one). As the Parliament prepares to start trilogue negotiations with Council and Commission, this Thursday’s plenary vote will be MEPs' final chance to reverse their position.
Unfortunately, after a year of intense negotiations and even more intense corporate lobbying, the proposal MEPs will vote on looks much weaker than the original call for a ban. They also recommended that the Commission should assess a phase-out leading to a ban of this type advertising practice. In October 2020 MEPs collectively agreed on the need to regulate ‘surveillance advertising’ more strictly in favour of less intrusive forms of advertising that do not require any user tracking.
These profiles are then used to target users for anything from selling them shoes to influencing their vote. This ad system is at the core of the business model of companies such as Google and Facebook and other digital advertisers, involving extensive tracking and profiling of internet users. This week Members of the European Parliament will be voting on the Digital Services Act, including an opportunity to ban 'surveillance' advertising.
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