Thread by @jason_kint

For those who track monopoly power and privacy rights, incredibly smart hearing this morning in Brussels where they have an opportunity to tame surveillance advertising which will only work if they also constrain “gatekeepers” - also on the eve of legislation in next 60 days. /1

I’m especially energized when I see testimony from people I don’t know who absolutely nail the issues. “The most important thing you can do is strongly limit the data that the dominant players have access to.” Thank you. Nailed it and rationale. /2

Important: adtech lobby (IAB, CCIA, Google, Facebook) have used influence and ad campaigns to create a straw man this is a “ban on targeted ads.” This is entirely false. The concern is tracking - aka surveillance - now also limited by Apple iOS. All four witnesses noted this. /3

amusing side point here is adtech lobby is running ad campaigns suggesting restrictions on surveillance advertising (which again their smokescreen calls “targeted ads”) will be the death of SMEs because contextual ads don’t work - and they’re using contextual ads. Lol. /4

Again, back to market power and why their lobby is pushing so hard to confuse parliament and weaken these once in a generation laws. Dr. Lynskey who was brilliant, explains using UK regulator investigative reports, who the current system benefits hence the relentless lobby. /5

In terms of who else benefits from unbridled surveillance advertising besides Google and Facebook, their trade bodies avoid that research but Dr Acquisti did the only major empirical study and publishers see minimal benefit which she cites here. /6

Dr. Lynskey also points out the misleading straw man that they’re going to take away all targeted ads and how they use deceptive research to create a narrative that ads won’t be relevant any more. It’s really BS by CCIA/Google/Facebook/IAB adtech lobby. /7

All this said, Dr Ryan comes in strong with reality check they must address market power. If you provide for a single consent and a weakly enforced GDPR then the gatekeepers will abuse this. The DMA must silo data as German Cartel Office has ordered Facebook (now in appeal). /8

By the way, ad fraud and toxic sludge are indeed downstream from data and competition policy which is brilliantly noted here. Solve integration of antitrust and privacy and you’ll boost industry integrity and hurt the bad guys currently being funded by advertising. 🤛 /9

Here is a link to the full hearing which I highly recommend. The US, UK, EU and Australia have been learning from each other on these issues. Two steps forward, one step backward, two steps forward… EU has next if they don’t screw it up ;) with ❤️ /eof europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-…

and here is @johnnyryan's full ten minutes which is well worth watching as he explains how ad auctions and the digital ad marketplace works. It's enlightening for those who aren't fully aware.