Responding to the Brussels Court of Appeal ruling establishing that the consent model underpinning tracking-based advertising by Big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and X in Europe is incompatible with EU privacy data law, Hannah Storey, Amnesty International Policy Advisor on Technology and Human Rights said:
“This a major win for the right to privacy and a clear message that the tech industry should move away from surveillance-based advertising to a more rights-respecting model.
“The practice of harvesting and processing our data using the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), currently used for most online advertising, is not compatible with the right the right to privacy. This ruling is a significant turning point in the push against the rights-violating business model.
Hannah Storey, Amnesty International Policy Advisor on Technology and Human Rights
“Advertising online is underpinned by ‘real time bidding’. This system collects personal information about us, such as what we’re reading, listening to, where we are, and can infer personal things about us like beliefs, sexual preferences and health conditions.
“Every time you load a website this personal information is shared with thousands of companies who then bid to show you an advert without proper control over your information and that’s a massive privacy breach.
“Big Tech companies have tried to argue that they are complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU digital privacy law enacted in 2016 to enhance data protection and privacy for individuals, by using the Transparency and Consent Framework – asking for our consent for this privacy invasion through mere popups – but this ruling shows that this model is not sufficient.”
Background
On 14 May the Brussels Court of Appeal ruled that the consent model used by the tracking based online advertising industry is illegal under EU privacy law. The ruling establishes that the Transparency and Consent Framework fails to meet GDPR requirements for user consent and transparency.