Greetings from Wells, Maine!

We might be a little over two weeks out from the IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2022, but my colleagues and I are still riding high from the experience — and I have a feeling we will be for quite a while. Not only did we enjoy the opportunity to meet and see in person so many privacy professionals, many of whom we’ve only covered or spoken to in recent years over virtual calls or meetings, but my intrepid peers Joe Duball, Alex LaCasse and I also had the pleasure of reporting on keynotes and sessions touching on a plethora of privacy topics.

Joe immersed himself in EU-U.S. data flows in sessions and keynotes with government officials on both sides, and beyond, while Alex dug into Colorado Privacy Act rulemaking in a session with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. I noticed and reported on differing regulatory approaches between Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan during her keynote speech and FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips in a separate session.

And there’s more we’ve kept with us and look forward to bringing to your attention. For me, it was the complex picture speakers painted of the state of the advertising technology industry.

During a session titled “The Regulation of Online and Mobile Tracking and Targeting Globally in 2022,” Venable Partner Reed Freeman, CIPP/US, noted increased scrutiny at the FTC and among Congress “against the advertising industry and tracking and targeting in general,” new state laws that could have a significant impact, and a “regulatory and market push to try to limit targeted advertising.”

The theme flowed through other GPS22 sessions with professionals also outlining enforcement focuses, like the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s 250,000 euro fine against IAB Europe, ruling that its Transparency and Consent Framework — used by much of the ad industry in the EU — does not comply with several EU General Data Protection Regulation provisions.   

Others pointed to changes by tech platforms, including the deprecation of third-party cookies by online browsers and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework. Lucid Privacy Group Founder Colin O’Malley said the moves are “changing the marketplace more comprehensively than any of the legal regimes around the world” and are “forcing changes at the atomic level of this ecosystem.”

The industry “has probably never been under this much scrutiny in more places and has never been subject to this much uncertainty as it is right now,” Freeman said.

These GPS22 insights, challenges and uncertainty piqued my interest, and I plan to continue looking into the issues, the industry impact, what it could mean moving forward, and what you need to know. Stay tuned!