“We are looking into legal options to resolve this issue.”
– ECR MEP Angel Dzhambazki, who this week found himself at the centre of an Indian disinformation scandal in Brussels.
Story of the week: Researchers have unearthed a widespread, coordinated, and manipulative 15-year-long Indian disinformation operation in Brussels, with the creation of fake media, the revival of defunct think-tanks, and even the fraudulent impersonation of dead people.
Also this week: The latest on the Digital Services Act, MEPs concerned about copyright, auditors probe EU’s 5G goals, France DPA Vs Google, Schrems on US privacy hearing, Scholz on Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Frontex’s biometric tech, Vienna: EU’s spy capital, Romania to host EU cyber centre, EU Algorithm ranking guidelines, Zuboff on Google-Fitbit, German competition crackdown on Facebook, Amazon in the Nordics, and much, much more…
The complaints argue that behavioural ads are both harmful and unlawful.
Earlier complaints over the same Real-Time Bidding (RTB) programmatic advertising issue were filed across the EU in 2018 and 2019 but have yet to result in any substantive regulatory action.
Ireland did open a probe into Google’s ad exchange last year, while Belgium’s DPA has been progressing an investigation into a flagship industry tool that’s used for gathering consents to ad targeting making a preliminary finding of non-compliance in October. But litigation to reach a final verdict on the IAB Europe’s “Transparency and Consent” (TCF) framework won’t take place until next year.