Europe’s new consumer data privacy rules could make it harder for smaller ad-tech companies to operate, driving a new wave of platform consolidation.
That is according to the privacy chief from the world’s largest media investment group.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came in to effect back in 2016, whilst the final deadline for compliance comes this May. Now any global company which deals with EU citizens’ data must comply with a new and more stringent set of demands, risking a fine of up to 4% of global annual turnover, up to a maximum of €20 million.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, GroupM privacy director Rachel Glasser gives her prediction for GDPR’s impact.
“What the GDPR will do in the industry in a year or so’s time will, number one, it’s going to cause a lot of consolidation of a lot of the smaller, more innovative partners that we see coming into this space,” she says.
“A lot of newer, smaller companies are not going to be able to really emerge. The bar for entry is going to be too high. They won’t have the money to buy their way in and make these partnerships with the bigger publishers because there’s going to be a lot more scrutiny on the specifics (like) ‘who’s placing cookies on their website?’ or ‘who are dropping device IDs?’
“Those things will become much more difficult for the smaller companies to get involved with.”
New GDPR stipulations give consumers new protections including:
- tighter consent conditions for the collection of citizens’ data.
- consumers can instruct companies to stop processing their data.
- automated decision-making and profiling decisions must be made clear.
- consumers can request decisioning by automated processes be stopped and handled by a human instead.
- they have the right to request an explanation of automated decision-making.
- they can request free access, rectification and deletion of data.
This video is part of our series on the preparation and anticipated impact GDPR on the digital media world. The series is presented by Criteo. Please visit this page for additional segments.