Hold-outs targeted in fresh batch of noyb GDPR cookie consent complaints

Hold-outs targeted in fresh batch of noyb GDPR cookie consent complaints

Just over a year after launching a major project targeting thousands of sites blatantly flouting cookie tracking rules in Europe, regional privacy campaign group noyb has fired off another batch of complaints targeting a hardcore of website operators that it says have ignored or not fully acted upon earlier warnings to bring their cookie consent […]

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DuckDuckGo removes carve-out for Microsoft tracking scripts after securing policy change

DuckDuckGo removes carve-out for Microsoft tracking scripts after securing policy change

A few months on from a tracking controversy hitting privacy-centric search veteran, DuckDuckGo, the company has announced it’s been able to amend terms with Microsoft, its search syndication partner, that had previously meant its mobile browsers and browser extensions were prevented from blocking advertising requests made by Microsoft scripts on third party sites. In a […]

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Sensitive data ruling by Europe’s top court could force broad privacy reboot

Sensitive data ruling by Europe’s top court could force broad privacy reboot

A ruling put out yesterday by the European Union’s top court could have major implications for online platforms that use background tracking and profiling to target users with behavioral ads or to feed recommender engines that are designed to surface so-called ‘personalized’ content. The impacts could be even broader — with privacy law experts suggesting […]

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Google delays move away from cookies in Chrome to 2024

Google delays move away from cookies in Chrome to 2024

Google is again delaying plans to phase out Chrome’s use of third-party cookies — the files websites use to remember preferences and track online activity. In a blog post, Anthony Chavez, Google’s VP of Privacy Sandbox, said that the company is now targeting the “second half of 2024” as the timeframe for adopting an alternative […]

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Seedtag, the ex-Googler-founded, cookie-free, AI-based adtech startup, taps $250M+ in funding

Seedtag, the ex-Googler-founded, cookie-free, AI-based adtech startup, taps $250M+ in funding

As regulation, platform dynamics and consumer choice continue to eat into the adtech stalwart known as cookies, it’s leaving a gap in the market for advertising solutions that can work well without relying on cookie functionality. Today, an adtech out of Spain that’s doing just this has raised a big round of funding to double […]

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Private equity descends on Chartbeat

Private equity descends on Chartbeat

Chartbeat, a website that tells publishers about their readers, is getting the private equity treatment. Launched out of Betaworks in 2009, the service offered real-time analytics back when Google Analytics made you wait 24 hours to see who was clicking around your site. Eons later, private equity firm Cuadrilla Capital has swooped in to buy […]

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Why investors see the potential in AI-powered, copy-generating adtech companies

Why investors see the potential in AI-powered, copy-generating adtech companies

Sophisticated AI systems like OpenAI’s GPT-3 can write prose that’s impressively human-like, or at least good enough to fool the average person. They’ve been used to generate essays, poetry, stories, news reports and more to impressive effect. Perhaps it was only a matter of time, then, before entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to leverage such systems […]

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TechCrunch+ roundup: SaaS success stats, leveraging ad tech chaos, 2022 layoff trends

TechCrunch+ roundup: SaaS success stats, leveraging ad tech chaos, 2022 layoff trends

I remember the dread I felt as a startup worker during downturns when I read about mass layoffs at tech firms that had previously been considered ascendant.

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Google will reimburse developers $90 million to settle a lawsuit over Play Store earnings

Google’s ‘deceptive’ account sign-up process targeted with GDPR complaints

Consumer rights groups in Europe have filed a new series of privacy complaints against Google — accusing the advertising giant of deceptive design around the account creation process that they say steers users into agreeing to extensive and invasive processing of their data. The tech giant profiles account holders for ad targeting purposes — apparently […]

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Uh oh! European carriers are trying to get into ‘personalized’ ad targeting

Uh oh! European carriers are trying to get into ‘personalized’ ad targeting

As Google works on reconfiguring its adtech stack to move away from cookie-based ad targeting to something else that’s not yet fixed but which it claims will be better for individual web users’ privacy — and after Apple’s move last year to lock down third-party tracking of app users on iOS, also on a claim […]

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