I only now read Georg Riekeles' excellent 2022 account of #BigTech's outrageous global #lobbying influence. While I don't agree with everything (e.g. his take on #liability and the #copyright debate), after 15 years in #EU #Brussels I'd say his long-read is frighteningly accurate.

Includes special mentions of @corporateeurope and other crucial civil society groups fighting back.

A must-read: https://medium.com/@georg.riekeles/teknopolis-7cbe48a5fcf2

Proud to be able to support the excellent #DSA complaint drafted by @aiforensics_org against the illegal use of personal data by #X to target people with #SurveillanceAds.

https://eupolicy.social/@edri/114862312731261161

Potentially groundbreaking court ruling against #Meta:

"A German court has ruled that Meta must pay €5,000 to a #Facebook user who sued the platform for embedding #tracking in third-party websites."

"This may very well be one of the most substantial rulings coming out of Europe this year, ... €5,000 in damages for one visitor adds up quickly if you have tens of thousands of visitors, or even millions."

https://therecord.media/german-court-meta-tracking-tech

Belgian appeals court rules #TCF's #consent framework that enables 80% of the internet's #SurveillanceAds is illegal.

What a fantastic win for the complainants (@edri members) @panoptykon, @bitsoffreedom, and #ICCL !

https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/eu-ruling-tracking-based-advertising-by-google-microsoft-amazon-x-across-europe-has-no-legal-basis/

At a #Mozilla event in #Brussels this morning about "#privacy-first online #advertising". I am _very_ curious where this weirdest of things Mozilla does is going.

Speakers: Petra Wikström, policy person at #Schibsted, @rvaneijk, @eff's Svea Windwehr and Mozilla's own Martin Thompson.

Frightening new evidence found by #Adalytics on how #adtech and #surveillanceads help fund #CSAM #childabuse online:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250207-how-google-amazon-and-microsoft-funnelled-ad-money-to-a-site-hosting-child-abuse-images

#TrackingFreeAds #privacy

Correction: I made a mistake, the evidence appears to have been collected by Adalytics, not CheckMyAds: https://adalytics.io/blog/adtech-vendors-csam-full-report

Here's an excellent report about what to (not) expect from self-regulatory #advertising codes of conduct under the #DigitalServicesAct, by the brilliant @jjaursch

https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/dsa-advertising-codes

I know the outcome of the presidential election in #Romania has a web of complex reasons. But it would be ludicrous to ignore the dangerous impact that #bigtech's laissez-faire and its #trackingads and content #monetisation business model has. Not only #tiktok but also #google and #meta:

Meta’s Role in Romania’s 2024 Presidential #Election - important research by @checkfirst

https://checkfirst.network/research-note-metas-role-in-romanias-2024-presidential-election/

"Financing digital services almost exclusively through personalised #advertising poses considerable risks to #democracy, social cohesion, informational self-determination, #climate and national #security. [...] the new @EUCommission should take #digitalfairness seriously & push for a ban on personalised ads."

Great new report by @germanwatch @fiff_de @wikimediaDE @Konzeptwerk and @CCC

https://www.germanwatch.org/sites/default/files/germanwatch_rethinking_online_advertising_2024.pdf

In the latest episode of #BigTech fuckery, #Google & #Instagram made a "secret deal to target #ads for #Insta to #teenagers on #YouTube."

This Google marketing campaign "deliberately targeted a group of [underage] users labelled as “unknown” [...] to ensure the true intent of the campaign was disguised."

Google’s own rules as well as the #EU's #DigitaServicesAct prohibit targeting online ads to minors.

https://www.ft.com/content/b3bb80f4-4e01-4ce6-8358-f4f8638790f8?emailId=9101e60e-bc61-44fa-81cb-18d95a11c905&segmentId=22011ee7-896a-8c4c-22a0-7603348b7f22

"The real issue here is a system that prioritizes #engagement over accuracy, #clicks over comprehension. It’s a system that rewards the most provocative headline, not necessarily the most accurate one."

A crucial analysis about the state of our #media landscape, brilliantly written by @Daojoan.

Go read it!

https://joanwestenberg.com/the-bait-and-switch-crisis-a-dangerous-disconnect-between-headlines-and-content

Does anyone know where to watch this #documentary?

"Welcome to the murky world of digital #adfraud, organised #crime's biggest source of income after drug trafficking. A former industry executive pulls the curtain to expose how it's done, who the victims are, and what role #Google and #Facebook play in the game."

https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=Ugz_xIjOMJ8

There has already been some media coverage of #Linkedin's decision to limit ad #targeting based on sensitive personal data and comply with the #DigitalServicesAct #DSA instead.

Most failed to mention that this was based on a joint complaint filed by @edri, @Freiheitsrechte, @bitsoffreedom and @globalwitness, so I took the liberty to write down the inside story for you :)

https://edri.org/our-work/privacy-win-linkedin-limits-ad-targeting-after-edri-complaint/

Holy shit, I thought I knew how evil the #SurveillanceAds industry was but here we are:

Two-thirds of European websites just ignore your #cookie choice and track you anyways, researchers from #ETHzurich found.

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec23winter-prepub-107-bouhoula.pdf

The European Court of Justice @Curia made my day today

"#Amazon lost a legal bid to delay obeying part of the European Union’s new content moderation law with the European Union’s top court saying its argument was “irrelevant” and “lacking in seriousness.”

News: @DefendDemocracy joins the #TrackingFreeAds coalition of politicians, biz & civil society orgs that are committed to ending the intrusive tracking #advertising industry that dominates our #internet.

"#Surveillance harms democracy, journalism & security."

https://trackingfreeads.eu/the-costs-of-tracking-ads/

As long as #journalists keep on regurgitating this #marketing bullshit about "highly relevant ads" we will never be free of #SurveillanceAds.

(Screenshot from #PoliticoEurope newsletter)