IAB Europe is recruiting a full-time Privacy Counsel to join our Brussels-based privacy team. The candidate should have sound knowledge of the European data protection framework and an interest in its impacts on technological development, especially on digital media.
Scope of the role: Key responsibilities
The Privacy Counsel will report to IAB Europe’s Privacy Director. The Privacy Counsel will be responsible for conducting expert analyses of the impact of privacy and data protection legislation, case law and guidance on the digital media and advertising industry. Tasks and responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Profile
Professional attributes:
Personal attributes:
What’s in it for you?
Location: Brussels
Type: Full-time
Salary: Competitive, commensurate with experience
Contract type: Indefinite
About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem. Through its membership of media, technology and marketing companies and national IABs, its mission is to lead political representation and promote industry collaboration to deliver frameworks, standards and industry programmes that enable businesses to thrive in the European market. Visit our website for more information about IAB Europe and its members.
How to Apply
To apply, please send your CV & a covering letter by email to jobs@iabeurope.eu with the subject line: ‘Privacy Counsel - Application’. While we may not be able to reach out to every applicant, we will contact candidates whose skills and experience are a strong match for the position.
Authored by Measurement and Connected TV (CTV) experts from Across Europe
Provides Valuable Insights on the Targeting and Measurement Options Available for CTV
26th January, Brussels, Belgium: IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, has today released its ‘Guide to CTV Targeting and Measurement’ to provide an overview of the targeting and measurement capabilities currently available in Europe.
This Guide follows on from IAB Europe’s Guide to Connected TV (CTV), Guide to the Programmatic CTV Opportunity in Europe and the Guide to Brand Safety in CTV to address an industry ask to delve deeper into this channel, to explore the targeting and measurement options and best practices for CTV.
As the CTV ad revenue opportunity grows in Europe and more ad budgets flow from linear TV into programmatic and CTV it is crucial that effective targeting and measurement solutions are in place across the supply chain. The Guide to Connected TV Targeting and Measurement has been developed by members of IAB Europe’s Channels & Formats Task Force to provide an overview of the targeting and measurement capabilities currently available, as well as to share key considerations for the buy-side. Given that this channel is evolving so quickly, it also dives into what the future holds for measurement and targeting in this space.
Commenting on her contribution to the Guide, Lizzie Wiltshire, Head of Client Solutions, Samsung Ads Europe said ‘CTV is rightly being recognised by the industry as an exciting avenue for advertisers. It’s an effective way to reach viewers on the biggest screen in the home, and it can also bring the best of digital advertising to its offer in terms of targeting and measurement. However, it can be tricky to understand exactly what CTV advertising offers and what buyers need to consider, as with any nascent technology.
I’m really pleased to be taking part in IAB Europe’s guide to targeting and measurement in CTV. It’s crucial for those of us in the space to actively educate the industry, and it’s great to be doing so alongside other market-leading businesses. As smart TV adoption grows rapidly across Europe, understanding how to reach OTT viewers and what success looks like will become increasingly high on the agenda for leading advertisers. It’s fantastic that IAB Europe is on the front foot to ensure they know what to look for.’
It has been a collaborative effort to produce this industry-leading targeting and measurement guide, with contributors including Comscore, Kantar, Magnite, MediaMath, PubMatic, Samsung Ads Europe and ShowHeroes Group.
Commenting on the importance of this Guide, Kristanne Roberts, Product Management Director at Kantar said: “IAB Europe's latest CTV guide provides a great overview of industry best practices, with further detail on the targeting and measurement opportunities available to buyers. It’s a great starting point for anyone looking to learn a bit more about CTV or for a guide on what to look out for when it comes to buying or evaluating CTV investment.”
Graeme Lynch, VP Demand, EMEA at Magnite also said, "CTV is the new frontier for consumers and advertisers and ad-supported services are at the centre of this evolution. The quality of content and the overall viewer experience needs to be at the forefront of everything being developed. Measurement is a key ingredient that will substantiate the value of advertising on CTV. The IAB's guide is a great resource for understanding the development of addressability and measurement in the CTV ecosystem and will help us continue to improve this important area in 2022."
Download the Guide here.
Contact
For more information please contact Lauren Wakefield (wakefield@iabeurope.eu)
In a note published last week, the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL) criticised IAB Europe’s efforts to monitor adtech vendors’ compliance with their commitments under the Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF). In particular, it called out IAB Europe’s “inability to audit what 1000+ companies that use TCF do with personal data”, and concluded that transparency and control “cannot be established”.
Presumably, the above reasoning explains why, according to the ICCL, data-driven advertising should be banned and any industry compliance initiative should itself be immediately discredited and prohibited. In other words, since it is impossible to guarantee absolute compliance, it would be better to do nothing. If one would, by analogy, apply the same reasoning to national data protection authorities (DPAs) - responsible for enforcing data protection rules - then these should all just close shop in light of their inability to continuously audit all data processing everywhere.
Luckily, both DPAs and IAB Europe take a somewhat less defeatist attitude to compliance and enforcement. And while IAB Europe is in no way a DPA, nor does it have the same powers as a DPA, it continuously strives to improve its monitoring and auditing capabilities in the context of the TCF.
As a reminder, the TCF is a voluntary standard that companies which serve, measure and manage digital, including personalised, advertising or content can use to assist with their GDPR compliance. It doesn’t guarantee compliance, nor does it seek to help companies shirk their legal responsibility. It’s just a step in the compliance process that every business that implements the Framework must undertake individually. Portraying it as anything else signals a misunderstanding of the instrument and its objectives.
As an integral part of the TCF, IAB Europe has been running a Consent Management Platform (CMP) compliance programme since 2019. That programme comprises a pre-implementation validation stage and a post-implementation enforcement stage.
In August 2021, the programme was improved and expanded to include monitoring of Vendor implementations for compliance with the TCF Policies and Technical Specifications. You can read more about the Vendor Compliance Programme here.
While it should be absolutely clear that the responsibility for correct implementation of the TCF, and ultimately compliance with the EU’s data protection framework, lies with the businesses that are subject to it, IAB Europe provides support and develops dedicated procedures to make sure the TCF is implemented properly. As managing organisation of the Framework, IAB Europe also imposes penalties in line with its prerogatives under the TCF Terms and Conditions to contractually sanction non-compliance.
The first iteration of the Vendor Compliance Programme launched in August last year falls within this objective. And while client-side vendor operations constitute the focus of what is only an initial phase, its scope includes systematic large-scale monitoring of vendor behaviour at the point of data collection and, thus, an assessment of compliance with critical TCF policies, directly rooted in requirements set out in the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR.
In particular, and contrary to the claims put forward by the ICCL, the programme not only monitors the writing and reading of cookies by Javascript and non-Javascript tags. It also audits all http requests and responses, and attempts to identify instances where vendors may not be collecting or transmitting personal data in accordance with the user’s preferences.
Crucially, to ensure accuracy of results, the auditing relies on both automated crawls and manual testing of web pages. This precludes any bad players within the system from circumventing the programme and evading their commitments towards the user and the industry as a whole.
It’s worth noting that such compliance monitoring and auditing is possible precisely because of the standardised and open format for signaling user preferences established by the TCF. This would not be possible with any other consent structure in use today. Our hope is that DPAs in particular, will consider leveraging the compliance auditing opportunities it offers.
For more information on the TCF Vendor Compliance Programme, please see this dedicated notification.
20 January 2022, Brussels, Belgium – The European Parliament has voted to accept new amendments to its position on the Digital Services Act, which will be put to a final vote today. A number of these provisions give cause for concern for all those who support an efficient, secure and prosperous European digital market.
Amendment 202, on online interfaces, prohibits service providers from ever asking for consent for data processing if a user has objected “by automated means using technical specifications”. We are concerned that this means that individual website or app publishers who want to request consent for legitimate purposes will be barred from doing so if a user has checked a box at the browser or OS level. This would strengthen the gatekeeper role of dominant players and have a disproportionate effect on small publishers.
Amendments 498 and 499 demand that services provide equal access and functionality to users who refuse consent for data processing for the purposes of advertising. This risks creating a ‘free rider’ problem and putting in peril huge swathes of the ad-supported information economy.
Commenting on the vote, IAB Europe Director of Public Policy Greg Mroczkowski said:
“The use of personal data in advertising is already tightly regulated by existing legislation. It is disappointing that in a mistaken belief that targeted advertising causes online disinformation or breaches privacy and data protection principles, MEPs have decided to pass amendments that not only overlap with the GDPR and existing consumer law but risk undermining these rules, as well as the entire ad-supported digital economy.
“We urge policymakers to take good account of the progress currently being made in GDPR enforcement and reconsider these amendments during the trilogue process to ensure we end up with a DSA that provides legal certainty for all actors.
“Ultimately, a Digital Services Act that boosts transparency and certainty across the online economy is in everyone’s interests. We will be consulting with our members and all interested stakeholders to try to come up with solutions that are workable, secure and efficient.”
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is poised to shape Europe’s digital future for decades to come. But as the legislation has been debated and discussed, there have been a significant number of proposals that would vastly expand its scope – and could profoundly change the way we operate online.
With the European Parliament plenary session to be held next week in Strasbourg, IAB Europe organised a roundtable discussion, The Digital Services Act: What Can We Expect from the Plenary Session?, where we were pleased to host Slavina Ancheva, Parliamentary Assistant to MEP Eva Maydell (EPP, Bulgaria), Benedikt Blomeyer (Director EU Policy, Allied for Startups), Tim Geenen (Managing Director, LiveRamp) and Fernando Parreira (Business Director, SAPO). The discussion was moderated by MLex’s Chief Correspondent Matthew Newman and saw participants share their insights on the state of play of the DSA debate.
One of the most prominent proposals in the DSA has been to introduce a blanket ban on targeted ads. This essential – unfairly maligned – low-cost marketing tool has been transformative for businesses large and small throughout the pandemic. It has allowed SMEs to reach new audiences across Europe and convert them into paying customers. Enterprises that have embraced digital tools have fared significantly better amid the uncertainty of Covid-19 and, as Allied for Startups’ Benedikt Blomeyer highlighted last Wednesday, they are essential for startups too.
MEPs in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee voted to avoid the blanket ban that would have had devastating consequences for consumers and businesses across Europe. This is to be welcomed but concerns remain about the scope of new measures that could make their way in during the plenary vote. Indeed, Slavina Ancheva cautioned that proposals for a ban could reappear during the plenary session, though she does not believe such a proposal would garner enough support to pass.
There are also open questions around practical implications of a ban on targeting minors, with an underlying concern about whether age verification of users’ will be allowed under the new rules. If a robust, reliable and affordable method of age verification cannot be used, these measures could potentially amount to a full ban on targeted advertising.
There has also been talk by some MEPs of using a wide-ranging ban on so-called ‘dark patterns’ as a way of banning targeted advertising by the back door. Sweeping language in the proposed Article 13a (1)(b) and (e) would take away the right of publishers to independently hold a dialogue with their users on consent for advertising purposes and heavily interfere with existing provisions in the EU’s consumer law and data protection framework, which are already being interpreted and applied by Data Protection Authorities (DPAs). Similarly, proposals relating to ‘consent’ around the use of personal data in targeting risk duplicating and undermining existing legislation.
Overlapping and sometimes conflictual rules would represent a significant regulatory burden for thousands of small businesses across Europe and could undermine the broader digital advertising ecosystem.
What is needed is proper enforcement of the EU’s world-leading General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), not new measures – a point agreed with by Fernando Parreira and Tim Geenen, who said the way to go for any new legislative instrument should be to empower users in line with the GDPR requirements.
There remains a wide divergence in the views of policymakers and the final outcome remains unclear. This was illustrated during a Targeting Startups event which saw MEP Henna Virkkunen (EPP, Finland) state that targeted ads are vital to SMEs. On the other hand, MEP Patrick Breyer (Greens/EFA, Germany) claimed that contextual advertising is an adequate replacement for the existing business model. Above all this, the lead rapporteur Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark) spoke of her aim of “reinforcing the intention of the GDPR” by making it easier “to refuse digital ads than accepting ads”.
Such a discrepancy of views will need to be reconciled ahead of the vote, a task that will not be easy. MEPs must remain alive to the risks of a ban or heavy restrictions on targeted advertising. Otherwise, businesses and consumers could be facing far-reaching, irreversible unintended consequences that will impact the very fabric of our free and open internet.
We are jumping into the new year with a wonderful new guest blog post from one of our members, Audiencerate. Filippo Gramigna CEO at Audiencerate, shares some wise words on the ever-changing digital landscape, touching on the developments and trends marketers can expect to see in the next 12 months and beyond.
It is that time of year when industry experts come together to make their predictions about what lies ahead: exciting changes, emerging technologies, and technical developments are all being considered for success. However, as we look forwards, we also think about what we have that is yet to evolve.
The spheres of advertising technology and marketing technology have always run in parallel, and we’re now beginning to see them merge. CMOs, marketers, and publishers are starting to understand that to benefit from emerging data technologies requires combining stacks in the most seamless way possible. Where before there was a disconnect, the future will see a bridge being built between these.
In the meantime, while we watch the ways in which the architecture of the landscape is shifting, there are a number of other areas we need to be aware of; the pillars of the ecosystem to come.
Consent
There are a number of challenges currently defining the landscape: Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies, Apple’s increasing privacy restrictions, and shifting legal structures across the globe. We are already on a clear trajectory towards privacy, and while users are becoming more aware of the value of their data, there is still a lot of uncertainty around what “consent” entails. For this reason, it’s up to brands to lead the way and be transparent around how consent and data will be used and managed. Aside from inspiring trust, companies that enact these measures ahead of time will experience less disruption as a result of future changes.
When it comes to actual data collection, brands need to be more imaginative when it comes to getting to know their customers. For example, interactive communications across multiple platforms — social, digital, and email — openly involve consumers in choosing their preferences and shaping their own experience. Consider Airbnb, who got families to pick photos of their ideal holiday and derived shareable profiles from this, combining a fun gaming activity with engagement to reveal information about personal inclinations.
Interoperability
When it comes to future developments to watch out for, technology tools that can offer a solution to our complex ecosystem while facilitating accessibility and usability will be the main contenders. For current and future operations, data tracking will be vital to master, for as methods change, different structures will be necessary to translate the information gathered into viable input.
Among a number of tools that marketers are adopting to streamline internal — and consequently external — methodologies and applications, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are one of the technological developments that have been drawing in investors across the board. CDPs prevent data silos and facilitate the communication and transparency companies will need in a future where, far from losing its value, data will continue to reign supreme. The tool builds comprehensive user profiles and simultaneously manages and optimises campaign performance while maintaining privacy at its core.
Collaboration
Effective collaboration has always been at the heart of success. In order to create impactful campaigns, different departments — across advertising, marketing, research, and analysis — all need to be able to communicate and share both ideas and data. Customer relations can no longer be severed from content; all parts need to be integrated into a working whole to achieve the best results.
But success also derives from external collaboration: be it to source capabilities, to share the burden of investment, or to develop ecosystem-wide solutions through privacy-first environments. The current state of fragmentation and inherent challenges predicts a shake-up of the industry, with many players restructuring their market positioning. Going forward we can expect more consolidation in the form of partnerships or M&As. As an example, we recently partnered with Roq.ad, Europe’s leading independent identity resolution provider, to move closer to achieving cookieless cross-device capabilities and a larger range of data solutions from enhanced targeting and scale options. This collaboration also allows us to extend our reach in proprietary data and data segment markets. Combining forces is all about pooling resources, and doing so can only lead to new creative solutions.
Identity
There’s no question that identity resolution will continue to pose a formidable challenge. Google has received backlash for providing a solution that ultimately favours larger platforms that benefit from more user data. In light of a few satisfactory alternatives, other players have already been developing their own ID solutions, most notably the Trade Desk with Unified ID 2.0 and LiveRamp’s IdentityLink.
The future of IDs is still unclear, navigating questions around authenticated versus anonymous, and industry-wide versus independent, solutions. Whatever the way forward, this is another area where collaboration across disciplines will be paramount to producing the best outcome. Only if publishers and tech companies work together closely can they truly elaborate which solutions will be the most impactful to consumers, beneficial to the company, and safe for all.
We may only be at the start of the evolution of the digital ad sales ecosystem, but we can already see which areas will be more important in defining the landscape ahead. By staying on top of key pillars — such as consent, interoperability, collaboration, and identity — marketers, brands, and publishers can maintain resilience in the face of change and even be the ones leading the transformation. Each pillar helps support the next, and by looking at the ad tech environment both on a holistic and granular level we can meet challenges head-on to build a better future.
After a relaxing Christmas break, it’s time to consider what the new year has to offer. 2022 could be the year to make a difference and have your say, so why not make joining an IAB Europe Committee one of your new year’s resolutions!
IAB Europe’s Committees and Task Forces produced a whole host of insightful and impactful outputs in 2021. We talked about trust and transparency, CTV, in-game advertising, digital audio advertising, and so much more. In 2022 we plan to continue this fantastic work and tackle even more pressing issues such as sustainability & corporate responsibility, disinformation, and post third-party cookie world preparation.
Being a part of an IAB Europe committee gives you the unparalleled opportunity to expand your knowledge and network, and provide valuable education and guidance to the wider community. It allows you to stay up to date on the latest regulatory affairs and public policy initiatives that promote self-regulation, best practices, and industry standards, and possibly most exciting of all, you are also given the opportunity to become a speaker or moderator at large events, which bring together hundreds of industry peers. Being a part of a committee truly lets you directly influence the work we are doing to drive forward the future of our industry.
What’s involved?
Each committee has a monthly conference call with a quarterly face-to-face meeting (when guidelines allow). The committee Chair and Vice-Chair lead each session, proactively involving members to get the very best from each meeting. The latest projects and outputs are discussed each month, giving members the opportunity to select the projects they wish to get involved in. Most committees will focus on two to three key projects each quarter, ranging from 101 guides and white papers to policy discussions and industry research. Those that contribute to outputs are always cited and included in subsequent PR or related events.
What Committees can I join?
Policy Committee – IAB Europe’s Policy Committee represents the interests of Europe’s digital marketing & advertising industry to ensure that future EU policy and regulation enables continuous innovation and sustainable media while maximising the industry’s potential to contribute to Europe’s digital economy.
Legal Committee – The Legal Committee brings together legal experts to help member companies and National IABs understand and assess the impact of EU legislation, European Court of Justice (CJEU) rulings, and enforcement by Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) as they pertain to digital advertising. It works to develop agreed interpretations of the law and compliance guidance to the market on key issues such as the definition of consent, legitimate interest, pseudonymization, verification for access requests, and other data subject rights, that can be promoted with key external stakeholders, including EU and local regulators, advertisers, and consumer associations. The Legal Committee is also involved in the preparation of IAB Europe responses and comments to EDPB and national guidelines, and other policy documents.
Programmatic Trading Committee – The Programmatic Trading Committee is a multi-stakeholder group that aims to increase understanding of the programmatic ecosystem and the impact it is having on digital advertising and influence industry initiatives to improve the ecosystem. 2022 is the year of sustainability, SSP Data best practices and preparing for a post third-party cookie world for this committee; if they are topics that grab your attention, we’d love to see you there!
Brand Advertising Committee – The mission of IAB Europe’s Brand Advertising Committee is to drive brand investment into digital by providing Brand Advertisers with a reliable and trusted Brand Advertising Framework for the converging digital and traditional media environment. The Framework is composed of a set of initiatives designed to be compatible with global programs. If ECommerce is a big focus for you in 2022, this is the committee for you.
Quality & Transparency Task Force – As the first branch of the Brand Advertising Committee, the Quality & Transparency Task Force aims to combat stakeholder quality and transparency concerns and address the challenges that the industry is facing in order to fuel consumer trust and brand investment in the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem. The members of this task force will be leading our well-known Trust and Transparency Month again this year, pushing out valuable disinformation guides, and exploring key issues such as climate change.
Channels & Formats Task Force – As the second branch of the Brand Advertising Committee, the Channels & Formats Task Force aims to increase awareness and drive investment by providing best practices and guidance in emerging and established digital advertising channels and formats. Join this expert task force right now to contribute to a brand new Buyers Guide to ECommerce and an updated Buyers Guide to CTV.
Research Committee – The Research Committee provides strategic insight to drive digital advertising investment by overseeing and inputting to all of IAB Europe’s research activities and formulating an annual research plan. Version two of our Effectiveness Measurement Framework is in the research committee spotlight, alongside CTV/cross-screen measurement and key annual research projects such as the attitudes to programmatic advertising survey.
Post Third-Party Cookie Task Force – This highly relevant task force is a joint IAB France and IAB Europe group, set up to help to shape the technical standards and the future paradigm that will redefine our industry. It brings European National IABs and their corporate members together to both promote “home-grown” European ideas, consolidate and submit feedback on proposals emanating from the W3C and Rearc, including the Chrome Privacy Sandbox.
Providing users with choices that they can make with confidence based on information is the key to ensuring a fair and transparent advertising industry that can sustain the open internet we know today.
Participation in the task force is open to all IAB Europe, IAB France, and other National IAB corporate members (even if those corporate members are not members of either IAB France or IAB Europe).
Technical Committee - Finally, we have the newest IAB Europe committee, created to ensure that work done by other committees and task forces, whether on the policy & legal compliance side or the industry promotion side, is grounded in a thorough understanding of the technology that underpins digital advertising delivery. The Technical Committee is a forum for information exchange and technical projects, discussing how new technology trends in data processing, ad delivery, measurement, brand safety, ad fraud, ad serving and the whole programmatic ecosystem are affecting, and are expected to affect, the digital advertising business in our region and IAB Europe’s ability to support the industry to address the needs of consumers, clients and regulators.
Participants should be technologists or software engineers, or others in a technical role within agencies, ad tech companies and publishers.
There is no limit on the number of committees you can join, so you can be as involved as you wish. For more information on any of our committees and/or task forces, please reach out to the team via communication@iabeurope.eu.
We hope to see you in a committee meeting soon!
