Advertising

Your browser has ad tech's fingerprints all over it, but there's a clean-up squad in town

Opinion Like being hard to spot? They’d much rather you didn’t

Security30 Jun 2025 | 53

AI-hosted infomercial shifts $7.5 million worth of product in China

Asia In Brief PLUS: India tries to untangle TXT marketing opt-ins; China’s AI crackdown succeeds; Australia and Boeing team AWACS, drones; and more!

AI + ML23 Jun 2025 | 3

AI agents don't care about your pretty website or tempting ads

'Your well-honed customer experience is noise to an agent'

AI + ML27 May 2025 | 37

RIP, Google Privacy Sandbox

Chrome will keep third-party cookies, a win for web giant's ad rivals

Applications22 Apr 2025 | 24

Google wins 1-1: Judge rules ad giant broke some antitrust law

After battle with Uncle Sam over online competition, web giant vows to appeal the bit it lost, celebrates the half it won

Personal Tech17 Apr 2025 | 4

Competition boffin launches class action against Google UK over search dominance

Alleges £5B in harm caused by Android deals, anticompetitive actions

Personal Tech17 Apr 2025 | 9

Mobile ad world drama: AppLovin not lovin' short seller assault claiming fraud

A peek behind the curtain in one corner of online advertising

Personal Tech28 Mar 2025 | 8

India ditches its 'Google Tax', perhaps to tickle Trump and dodge tariffs

Binned an e-commerce tax last year so this may not be complete capitulation

Public Sector26 Mar 2025 | 5

Amazon, Google asked to explain why they were serving ads on sites hosting CSAM

Updated And US government adverts at that, say senators

Personal Tech08 Feb 2025 | 42

Amazon sued for allegedly slurping sensitive data via advertising SDK

Harvesting of location data and other personal info without user consent, lawsuit claims

Personal Tech30 Jan 2025 | 24

Honey co-founder's Pie Adblock called out for copying GPL'd uBlock Origin files

And, magically, a repo appears on GitHub with attribution

Personal Tech04 Jan 2025 | 32

Watchdog deep-sixes job ad that was actually pay-to-play training course

Misleading listing on a recruitment site? Whatever next?

Offbeat19 Dec 2024 | 16

Google must face £7B UK class action over search engine dominance

Ad slinger alleged to have abused position, resulting in higher prices for consumers

Software26 Nov 2024 | 24

How US Dept of Justice's cure for Google could inflict collateral damage

Opinion Remedies should be refined with an eye toward broad platform rights and responsibilities

Software25 Nov 2024 | 26

Google decides Europe's political ad rules are too hard to implement at scale

Will stop accepting ads instead before TTPA comes into force

Public Sector15 Nov 2024 | 26

IBM sued again in storm over Weather Channel data sharing

Privacy lawsuit blows this way alleging disclosure of names, email addresses, geo info, video titles without permission

Personal Tech08 Nov 2024 | 1

San Francisco billboards call out tech firms for not paying for open source

Puts Chief Tightwad Officers on notice

Software25 Oct 2024 | 79

Big browsers are about to throw a wrench in your ad-free paradise

Mozilla and Google complicate life for users of uBlock Origin and uBlock Lite

Software21 Oct 2024 | 102

FTC drops hammer on unwanted subscriptions with 'click to cancel' rule

It 'will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money'

Legal16 Oct 2024 | 18

Google expands visual, audio search, lets AI handle layout

AI Overviews get links to referenced websites – and ads

AI + ML03 Oct 2024 | 3

Google insists the ad tech business ain't broke, urges Washington not to fix it

As its other monopoly trial - the one brought by the DoJ and eight states - begins in Virginia

Legal10 Sep 2024 | 9

Former YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki, 56, succumbs to cancer

A career and life so classically Silicon Valley

Personal Tech12 Aug 2024 | 28

Twitter tells advertisers to go fsck themselves, now sues them for fscking the fsck off

Updated CEO claims 'illegal boycott' was attack on Musk's version of free speech

Personal Tech06 Aug 2024 | 198

Google paying to be default search on phones is totally against antitrust law, judge rules

Web giant to seek second opinion after bench labels biz 'a monopolist' in DoJ win

Applications05 Aug 2024 | 48

Microsoft ad subsidiary Xandr accused of violating GDPR

Updated Access, deletion requests go ignored, and consumer profiles contradict themselves, complaint alleges

SaaS09 Jul 2024 | 8

Antitrust cops cry foul over Meta's pay-or-consent ultimatum to Europeans

Facebook, Instagram gobble up same data whether you hand over cash or not

Personal Tech01 Jul 2024 | 40

Yahoo! Japan to waive $189 million ad revenue after detecting fraudulent clicks

Admits it's not sure some clicks came from humans, points to bettter quality as sign not all is rotten

Cyber-crime26 Jun 2024 | 11

Google’s attempt to kill off child privacy app advertising lawsuit defeated

Won't somebody pleeease think of the ... oh, right, they are

Personal Tech20 Jun 2024 | 5

X boss Elon Musk tries to make nice with world at ad biz conference

Where we're at in 2024: Billionaire says he didn't mean to tell everyone to 'go f%$k themselves'

Offbeat20 Jun 2024 | 46

Australian billionaire wins right to sue Facebook in the US over scam ads

Andrew Forrest has spent five years railing against promos that falsely claim he's found the route to crypto riches

Personal Tech20 Jun 2024 | 78

What's up with Mozilla buying ad firm Anonym? It's all about 'privacy-centric advertising'

Analysis Is such a thing possible for an industry that never respected people's wishes?

Personal Tech18 Jun 2024 | 50

Meta accused of trying to discredit ad researchers

As more than 70 civil society groups sign open letter slamming 'intimidation'

Personal Tech16 Jun 2024 | 35

Japan's space agency helps to target advertising with satellite photos of crops

Some would say ads for cabbage are futile – can pics from space at least make them timely?

Software14 Jun 2024 | 20

Oracle Ads have had it: $2B operation shuts down after dwindling to $300M

Analysis In this slightly more private era, your data ain't as profitable as it once was

Personal Tech13 Jun 2024 | 25

UK tribunal greenlights $17.4B advertising monopoly case against Google

Chocolate Factory entangled in yet another anti-competitive claim

Networks05 Jun 2024 | 7

Meta algorithms push Black people more toward expensive universities, study finds

Special report Just as we saw with housing, Facebook giant's advertising system seems to treat Whites and POC differently

AI + ML04 Jun 2024 | 44

Google’s in-house docs about search ranking leak online, sparking SEO frenzy

Updated GitHub trove details API features that 'contradict' Big G’s public statements about how its engine works

Devops29 May 2024 | 39

PayPal is planning an ad network built off your purchase history

You are the product, after all

Personal Tech28 May 2024 | 78

Google offers DoJ cash to eliminate jury in web ad monopoly abuse trial

Nyah, nyah: You can't sue for damages if we just meet your demands

Public Sector21 May 2024 | 8

An attorney says she saw her library reading habits reflected in mobile ads. That's not supposed to happen

Feature Follow us down this deep rabbit hole of privacy policy after privacy policy

Personal Tech18 May 2024 | 140

Hey, Reddit. Quick question. All those clicks on my ads. Were they actually real?

Advertiser takes super-forum to court after demand for evidence rebuffed

Personal Tech11 May 2024 | 71

Watchdog reveals lingering Google Privacy Sandbox worries

Ad tech rewrite to replace web cookies still not to regulatory taste

Security29 Apr 2024 | 10

Now all Windows 11 users are getting adverts to 'make the Start menu great again'

And you thought the Bing begging was annoying

OSes24 Apr 2024 | 109

If Britain is so bothered by China, why do these .gov.uk sites use Chinese ad brokers?

Exclusive One wonders why are there adverts on public-sector portals at all

Research24 Apr 2024 | 109

UK data watchdog questions how private Google's Privacy Sandbox is

Leaked draft report says stated goals still come up short

Security22 Apr 2024 | 3

Future Roku TVs may inject tailored ads into anything and everything when you pause

Updated Muted the audio? That's an advert. Paused a video? That's an advert

Personal Tech17 Apr 2024 | 61

YouTube now sabotages ad-blocking apps that stream its vids

EFF lambastes latest 'lazy and deliberately malicious move'

Applications16 Apr 2024 | 70

Meta accused of snarfing people's Snapchat data via traffic decryption

I ain't afraid of no ghosts, but in this case...

Personal Tech27 Mar 2024 | 20

Ahead of IPO, Reddit blends advertising into user posts

As FTC starts asking questions about that mega-deal with Google to train AI

Personal Tech16 Mar 2024 | 54

IAB Europe's ad consent popups pose privacy problem

Court of Justice of the European Union says consent identifers are personal info, subject to GDPR

Personal Tech08 Mar 2024 | 24

US and Europe try to tame surveillance capitalism

Feature Trade watchdog argues that browsing and location data are sensitive and deserve to be defended

Public Sector05 Mar 2024 | 36

Canada poutine more pressure on Google by expanding ad biz antitrust probe

Court order means ad giant will have to cough evidence of possible market manipulation

Public Sector01 Mar 2024 | 8

Google sued by more than 30 European media orgs over adtech

Meanwhile, the Google News Initiative is pushing AI tools for publishers

Legal29 Feb 2024 | 6

Brit watchdog thinks Google's tweaked Privacy Sandbox still isn't cricket

Good start, but we want further reassurance, says Competition and Markets Authority

Applications01 Feb 2024 | 15

Intuit ordered to use the word 'free' less freely in its ads

FTC slams TurboTax's marketing as deceptive

Public Sector24 Jan 2024 | 10

Google to start third-party cookie cull for 30 million Chrome users

One of the ad APIs that will fill the void – Protected Audience – arguably may offer better privacy anyway

Personal Tech04 Jan 2024 | 46