In a filing submitted to the competition division of the European Commission, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, France’s Orange, Spain’s Telefónica, and the UK’s Vodafone have proposed to create a joint venture to offer opt-in “personalized” ad targeting to regional mobile network users. The proposed joint venture will be jointly owned and controlled by the parties to offer “a privacy-led, digital identification solution to support the digital marketing and advertising activities of brands and publishers.”
The European Commission’s antitrust division has recently signed off on the proposal. Nevertheless, their press release was careful to note that the competition division’s green light does not mean that the project will pass through European Union (EU) data protection regulators. The project is also being closely watched by local regulators of each member state (especially by Germany and Spain) as privacy watch groups raised concerns regarding the legal basis for processing mobile users’ data for ads.
These apprehensions are largely focused on the EU’s comprehensive data protection and privacy laws on existing microtargeting ad tech, which relies on user consent. Such behavioural ad tech had been found to breach the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation last February. This finding, coupled with the release of certain details about the joint venture’s personalized ad-targeting, which emerged last summer during initial test runs in Germany, led the joint venture to tweak its proposal with regard to its proposed strategy for gathering user consent.
While the underlying tech was then described as a “cross-operator infrastructure for digital advertising and digital marketing,” members of the joint venture have repeatedly made statements that the proposed ad-targeting will rely on explicit consent from mobile and internet subscribers before a particular brand or advertiser uses their personal data to target them with marketing. Therefore, the tech infrastructure will be “privacy led” and will heavily focus on transparency for consumers on how brands are “communicating” with them.
The Canada Growth Fund (“CGF”) has announced a C$89 million investment in Calgary-based Eavor Technologies (“Eavor”), a global leader in closed-loop geothermal energy. An additional C$48 million may…
Alta Daily (“Alta”), founded by Jenny Wang, is an innovative startup that is transforming how artificial intelligence can assist users with personal styling. Shortly after launching the company, Wang…
Web Summit is a growing international technology conference that has rapidly become “one of the world’s biggest and best”. As the predecessor to Toronto’s highly-successful Collision conference, Web…
Microsoft recently announced a US$400 million investment in its Swiss data centres to develop cloud computing and AI infrastructure in the country. The money will be used to expand and upgrade four of…
Since 2022, Zown Realty Inc. (“Zown”) has provided Canadians with an easy, fast and comprehensive app to support those looking to buy or sell real estate. Zown recently expanded into the United States…
Eli Science Inc. (“Eli Health”), a Montreal-based startup, has secured C$17 million in Series A funding to launch its at-home hormone monitoring technology. This round of investment was led by…
