Data Privacy

It’s been more than two months since Google said it would forego third-party cookie deprecation in favor of a user choice mechanism. But it hasn’t shared any details yet.

It’s a wrap on the US v. Google antitrust case, at least for now. Then, behind the IP infringement claim on the OpenRTB spec that ruffled feathers at the IAB Tech Lab.

Google isn’t perfect. But it offers convenient, cost-effective advertising tools that millions of small businesses use to find customers, grow and succeed. If the DOJ breaks up the company, it will also break those tools.

A web crime ring that sold Facebook account service tickets collapses in dramatic fashion; how US antitrust precedent could inform the DOJ/Google ad tech trial; and more publishers turn to paywalls as the open web shuts its gates.

Competing agendas are limiting the tools publishers have at their disposal in ways that aren’t always primarily motivated by user privacy. Here are five things about privacy in digital media that should keep publishers up at night.

Hear what the ad tech industry is saying about Google’s antitrust trial. Then, a rundown on how the election is playing out for political advertisers and news publishers.

Let’s clear the air. The Federal Trade Commission does not hate advertising, says Samuel Levine, the agency’s consumer protection chief. But the FTC does have a few suggestions for the ad industry.

The FTC’s got a new report on the data collection practices of large social media and video platforms. Plus, Amazon has its own “Shark Tank.”

Has the Federal Trade Commission been overstepping its bounds? Yes, according to newly appointed Republican FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak.

The FTC’s latest staff report has strong message for social media and streaming video platforms: Stop engaging in the “vast surveillance” of consumers.