Technology

• As Google and Apple crackdown on third-party cookies, the adtech vertical is preparing for a day when most players will depend on first-party data and the big four will have an even tighter hold on users. AdExchanger publishes an op-ed discussing what preparations should adtech players make to be well fitted for this new reality.
• Brian O’Kelley, former CEO of AppNexus, submitted a detailed and compelling forecast of ad-tech companies’ reaction to Google’s announced Chrome anti-tracking measures on quora.
• Ad refreshing, the practice of reloading ads which are already appearing on a webpage, is not allowed by AAX; it is however a quite common discipline in the adtech space, and numerous publishers, networks and SSPs employ this technique without guaranteeing to advertisers that these refreshed ads enjoy decent viewability rates. The AdExchanger published an op-ed that calls for an industry standard treatment of ad refreshing.
• Google’s SVP of Advertising and Commerce gave an engaging interview to CNET, speaking about online privacy in general and on Chrome update restricting the use of third party cookies in particular.

Supply

• Content solutions accounted for 40% of Forbes Media’s direct revenues this year (reaped through direct advertiser relationships), Digiday reports.

Regulation

• A year has passed since the GDPR came into power. CNBC publishes an unflattering review of the legislation’s influence on consumers, companies, and the market as a whole; claims that regulators are unable to properly enforce it due to manpower shortage and that its main impacts to date are added layers of bureaucracy to corporations and the creation of an overwhelming flood of privacy notices, to which users quickly become blind. The article raises interesting notes to consider as the market prepares for the coming into effect of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) on January 1, 2020.

   

• As GDPR complaints accumulate in Europe, Fix Adtech (a campaign striving to promote security and privacy in Adtech) published an article addressing complaints that RTB inherently infringes the GDPR in a regular and large scale manner, as personal data is being transmitted to different players in the adtech chain.
  This is a good example of the growing concerns of European users and privacy advocacy organization regarding the storing and transmission of personal data, and should definitely serve as a warning sign to companies in the space.