The Web Explodes, Email Flutters, Ad People Moan, Lawyers Clean Up

Michael Hedges May 28, 2018 - Follow on Twitter

Almost as innocuous as the daily grind of breaking news alerts from one TV channel or another are the incessant reports of another internet crisis, all variations of Tweet-storms. It’s nostalgia in reverse. People formed this unshakable belief in the right to endless cool and wonderful stuff through the web. The days of cheap and easy access to all those goodies are over.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has come into effect to protect the rights of European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) citizens to better control personal data used and stored through any internet server. The European Commission (EC) and European Parliament (EuroParl) had worked on it, very publicly, for four years. GDPR was adopted by the Council of the European Union in April 2016 giving folks, one would think, sufficient time to consider their options. And, so, many users of the internet and data derived from it had a panic attack the day GDPR came into force, largely over fear of big fines.

“Uncertainty about the new rules is huge,” offered FAZ (May 27), “and the consequences… are not always those that privacy advocates had previously hoped for.” Gamer sites, social media portals, e-commerce sites and specialty blog sites - from religious institutions to daycare centers - have closed or suspended operations “because the operators are overwhelmed by the rules.” Big internet users are required to employ a data protection officer.

Websites of US publisher Tronc - Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, et.al. - simply blocked users in “most European countries,” said the pop-up screen.The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corporation, and USA Today used geographic identities to shuttle European users to European subdomains. The Washington Post seized the opportunity to offer new access options, including a “premium EU subscription.”

For some it is an opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons. “We are giving a choice to European users, “ said Washington Post chief information officer Shailesh Prakash to Les Echos (May 25). “Either they accept our data collection policy for free site access or they can pay for a subscription with no ads.”

Bot-induced advertising exchanges - “programmatic” - were easy and immediate targets. “Ad exchanges have seen European ad demand volumes plummet between 25 and 40 percent in some cases,” said Digiday (May 25), citing unnamed sources. Google told ad clients to expect “short-term disruption” and avoid third-party servers. The AdTech business is likely to suffer most as tasty, sweet cookies turn to spinach.

Publishers didn’t need yet another excuse to move away from the digital advertising model. Two days before GDPR took effect German business newspaper Handelsblatt implemented a “hard” paywall, reported meedia.de (May 23).

As GDPR came into effect, without surprise, complaints and lawsuits were filed against Facebook and its subsidiaries Whatsapp and Instagram as well as Google. They were filed in strong privacy jurisdictions - Austria, Belgium, France and Germany - by Austrian digital privacy advocate Max Schrems. The charge is forcing users to either accept a general data usage consent or, well, go elsewhere which, he said, is contrary to the spirit and, arguably, the letter of the law. He’s asking for €7 billion. Lawyers, as usual, will be the biggest winners.

See also in ftm Knowledge

The Privacy Issue

The privacy issue touches every aspect of media. From consumer protection and the rights of individuals to news coverage privacy is hotly debated. New media and old media stumble and the courts decide. ftm offers views from every side of the Privacy Issue. 68 pages. PDF (July 2014)

Order Here

Social Media Matures (...believe it or not...)

Hundreds of millions use social media, billions even. It has spawned revolutions, excited investors and confounded traditional media. With all that attention a business model remains unclear or it's simply so different many can't see it. What is clear is that there's no turning back. 114 pages, PDF (July 2016)

Order here