Data Privacy

The year ahead in commerce, with insights from the NRF Big Show conference, where retailers congregate every January. Plus, the 2026 privacy policy cheat sheet.

Publishers, brands and agencies today are navigating a new landscape. With rising consumer expectations and evolving regulations, delivering personalized campaigns requires a fresh approach.

Alvaro Bedoya shared his qualms with digital advertising’s more controversial targeting tactics and how kids use gen AI and social media.

Live from New York at Programmatic IO, the AdExchanger editorial team debriefs what ad tech’s brightest minds are saying and doing around AI and measurement.

Will Google need to spin off its ad exchange and ad server? Court is in session in Virgina, with the DOJ and Google advocating for completely different remedies to Google’s sell-side ad tech monopoly.

Advertising using AI-doctored images could spark legal issues if the images are misleading. Plus: the commerce reckoning.

Rather than sharing universal TIDs that any DSP or curator can access, Raptive says publishers should instead share encrypted TIDs with an encryption key provided only to trusted demand-side partners.

Meta’s sparse settlement payout ends the Cambridge Analytica scandal with a whimper; Google brings dynamic host-read ads to YouTube; and HUMAN uncovers IVT hiding in mobile app downloads.

Comscore’s new AI-based initiative allows data providers to convert ID-based datasets into ID-free audience segments, helping advertisers target audiences with improved accuracy and privacy.

We’ve got the witness list for the remedy phase of the Google antitrust trial, which starts in September. How might Google be forced to change its ad server and exchange to make this corner of the ad tech market competitive again?

A recently proposed Senate bill seeks to determine fair use cases for LLMs training on personal data and copyrighted material, along with the penalties for misuse.

OpenX filed a lawsuit against Google over its anticompetitive practices. And HyphaMetrics claimed victory against Nielsen in court over a patent lawsuit.

Pixels attached to articles explaining a recent health diagnosis – without consent  – led Healthline to a record $1.55 million fine for violating CCPA. Plus: the new AI contract.

In a world where privacy regulations are tightening and third-party cookies are increasingly unreliable, first-party data has emerged as a cornerstone of modern marketing strategy.

Open Intelligence is WPP’s Media’s new solution to help advertisers make sense of their data and use it in more ways, with a longer-term goal of decentralizing data.

Can the IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server initiative really help restore publishers’ ownership of monetization and wrestle back control from Big Tech and walled gardens?

The IAB Tech Lab is proposing that ad auctions move to a Trusted Server from the browser. Why its prototype attracted controversy. Plus, should data privacy be viewed as a badge of honor, or a baseline standard?

Sen. Ron Wyden shared his stance on a federal privacy law, consumer data brokers and, for good measure, his thoughts on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg cozying up to President Trump. (“I thought it was god awful,” he said.)

Where and how brands choose to advertise is perceived as a reflection of the brand itself. That means we’ve entered the era of responsible advertising.

When talk turns to the most impactful state privacy laws, the conversation usually starts and stops with California. However, recent developments may make Maryland the most challenging state for compliance by the digital media industry.

As media consultancy Sequent Partners ceases operations, its leaders look back at how far the ad industry has come – and how far it still needs to go.

The deal is a “platform investment,” in which Inverness Graham sees Alliant as a foundation to build on, potentially through further acquisitions.

Publishers are in the business of selling their readers’ attention to advertisers. But in response to consumer preferences and regulatory pressure, publishers should reposition themselves as champions of data dignity.

In today’s newsletter: The DOJ sues TikTok alleging COPPA violations; Disney wraps a competitive upfronts season as it faces stiller competition for streaming ad budgets; and more than $107 million was spent on ads for AI products in the first half of this year.

The Connected Commerce Council (CCC), a lobbying organization based in Washington, DC, hosted a virtual press conference to spotlight small businesses and their concerns with the APRA, the latest attempt at setting national privacy standards.

With a multifaceted approach, companies can manage the risks while reaping the rewards of more consumer-conscious ad targeting strategies.

Many in the digital advertising industry truly want to do better. But there are imminent obstacles that need to be tackled if we want to move from words to deeds.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Pub Trawl With generative AI tech, publishers are speeding through decades’ worth of web monetization cycles, which is a fancy way to say publishers are making the same mistakes.  Last month, Jessica Lessin, founder and CEO of The Information, published a column for […]

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

In today’s newsletter: Closing arguments begin in the DOJ vs. Google Search antitrust trial; the sports betting ad bubble might be set to burst; and Etsy struggles to stand out among ecommerce competitors in audience scale and marketing spend.