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Kings College London’s project examined programmatic advertising, or Adtech. This has emerged as one of Britain’s most pervasive forms of concealed online tracking and profiling. Within Adtech’s complex data driven systems, the placing of myriad third party cookies (TPCs) on consumer web browsers has fed a vast commercial ecosystem. Nonetheless, under growing pressure from data protection regulators as well as changing online platform practices, Adtech’s reliance on TPCs is on the wane.
The ‘After TPCs’ research project had two aims: First, by widening its inquiry beyond the more familiar UK and EU regulatory sphere, the project critically investigated changes in the world’s dominant Adtech markets – the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Second, the project focused on the key question of how the ‘notice and choice / consent’ (NC/C) data protection model will function, as new ways of profiling and tracking consumers online replace TPCs. The project assessed alternative ways to provide consumers with personal data control and genuine empowerment in the face of profiling and tracking.
If you'd like more information, please contact the ICO's grants programme.
Outputs
- Announcement of release of After Third Party Cookies Reports
- After Third Party Tracking: Main Research Report
- Consent is Not Enough