Consumer advocates demand ban on tracking
Profiling specifically targets users' weaknesses, which is why the German Federation of Consumer Organizations calls for a relaunch of the ePrivacy Regulation.
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The Federation of German Consumer Organizations wants the ePrivacy Regulation, which has been stuck at EU level for eight years, to be completely overhauled by the next EU Commission. Without this, the effect of the General Data Protection Regulation would be limited, for example with regard to tracking. Consumer advocates are calling for a total ban on profiling for advertising purposes. The online advertising industry disagrees.
On the sixth anniversary of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into full force, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) is calling on the next EU Commission, the member states and the upcoming European Parliament to take clear measures to improve protection against tracking. To this end, the GDPR must finally be supplemented by an effective e-privacy regulation – and this needs a fresh start.
The GDPR is a "great gain", according to Ramona Pop, Chairwoman of the German umbrella organization of consumer protection organizations. "But the current regulations are not enough. Tracking and profiling should be banned. People don't want to be permanently tracked and their data compiled into profiles to exploit their weaknesses."
"Fragile seniors" as a profile category
This is also shown by a survey commissioned by the consumer protection organizations from the opinion research institute Forsa: 70 percent of respondents were of the opinion that companies should not be allowed to combine data into profiles in order to create personalized advertising. 89 percent stated that in their opinion, companies should only use personal data if the purpose is clear.
"The potential for misuse of personalized advertising is enormous and can range from the manipulation of purchasing decisions to discrimination," says vzbv board member Pop. The categorizations are sometimes tailored precisely to individual weaknesses, such as people with an affinity for gambling, smokers, the overweight, those with an affinity for risky investments or "fragile seniors".
BVDW: Information could become a luxury good if banned
The digital economy, on the other hand, warns against a total ban: the technology is necessary to prevent users from being confronted with masses of irrelevant advertising, emphasizes Dirk Freytag, President of the German Association of the Digital Economy (BVDW). The current financing model of online offerings is largely based on the fact that relevant advertising generates higher success rates for advertisements and therefore higher revenues for the operators. It is not about the individual, but about relevant groups. If tracking for advertising purposes and the associated profiling were to be banned, this could lead to information becoming a luxury good. "Let's talk openly about whether we would rather see a lot of advertising without relevance, or a lot of content with advertising that is relevant," says Freytag.
Cookie consent banners are a problem, criticizes the BVDW President. The GDPR is right, but the implementation and discussions are not helpful. With the GDPR, Data Act, AI Act, DSA and others, a partly contradictory confusion has arisen – and regulatory gaps due to the e-privacy regulation, which is still missing eight years after the GDPR was passed. "Today, everything is in a gray area, individual data protection authorities interpret tracking differently than others, so we have legal uncertainty," says Freytag. This is also detrimental to the economy because it does not allow for reliable planning. The BVDW wants greater new regulation, says Freytag, in order to "finally get rid of the confusion." Clear regulations for data protection and data usage are necessary. This could also be possible with anonymized data - but is indispensable in the age of AI.
Cookie-based profiling could become technically obsolete
Whether the current incarnation of tracking has a future at all depends not least on the manufacturers of mobile device operating systems and browsers. Apple has blocked some tracking technologies in recent years, while Google has announced its intention to block third-party cookies, which are still the regular technical implementation for tracking and profiling. Instead, the company itself wants to make data available centrally for tailored advertising - which in turn raises competition concerns. This is another reason why the launch has been tested since 2019, but above all postponed several times.
It is unclear whether the ePrivacy Directive, which is now 22 years old, has a real chance of being revised in the upcoming EU legislature. In any case, none of the major parties represented in the EP to date have dared to formulate a revision as an election promise in their manifesto for the election on June 6. In the end, however, the project failed mainly due to disagreement between the member states: they were unable to find a common position in the Council.
(emw)
