Our new report: To Track or Not to Track? Towards Privacy-friendly and Sustainable Online Advertising shows that it’s actually possible to reform the ad tech industry without bankrupting online publishers. But in order to make that happen, EU policymakers must create a regulatory push by enforcing the GDPR and adopting new rules which would incentivise the uptake of alternatives.

The online advertising economy is not a win-win situation, despite what the ad industry claims. Here are 10 reasons why.

A brief introduction to the types of ads we encounter online — and what they know about us

The Polish DPA decided that Panoptykon’s complaints against IAB Europe and Google, who are responsible for the functioning of targeted advertising, have a cross-border character, which means that they affect data subjects residing not only in Poland. In order to ensure a consistent application of the GDPR in the entire European Union, the Polish DPA referred our complaints to DPAs in Belgium and in Ireland where IAB and Google respectively have their European headquarters. This gives hope for a systemic change of how behavioural advertising works in the entire EU.

We have taken part in the public consultations of the draft code of conduct which is supposed to help apply the GDPR to the internet advertising sector. The code was prepared by the Polish office of the Internet Advertising Bureau.