Today AdUnity announces the launch of the new privacy protected AdUnity Enterprise Ad Server for publishers (EAS). By default, the AdUnity Enterprise Ad Server does not drop cookies and does not process personal data (unless specifically requested to do so by the publisher). This means we do not require consent. AdUnity reduces friction with publishers audiences, eliminates compliance burden, reduces legal risk and protects ad revenues.
AdUnity has invested heavily in evolving their ad server platform to minimises the use of personal data, not only is this required in GDPR (Articles 5, 11, 32) but it also provides much greater flexibility to publishers in terms of how they sell ad media. Data minimisation is a legal requirement under GDPR, but it also reduces impact to end-users. By default, AdUnity collects no personal data, hence we have reduced the impact to end-users to almost zero. It is this minimisation of the impact to end users that allows publishers to use “legitimate interest” to sell ad media and control advertising operations. This approach makes sure the Legitimate Interest balancing test works in favour of allowing the publisher to sell ad media.
“We have worked hard to eliminate personal data from our standard ad server platform. AdUnity only collects personal data if and when the publisher has consent and tells us to do so. Therefore, in many use cases, we are simply out of scope for GDPR. This significantly reduces the regulatory risk for publishers.” Iulian Andreescu, Director of Product.
Most publisher ad servers, including DFP, position themselves as an independent data controller. They do this because they collect data about the publisher’s audience to use for their ad technology businesses. This is known as the data harvesting business model. However, post-GDPR this business model puts the burden on publishers to collect the consent for the ad server company! Publishers now have the burden of asking their loyal audience to give consent to ad server companies to:
In addition, these ad server companies also tell publishers that they must:
If the publisher does not do these things and continue to use the ad server the publisher may be subject to complaints from their audience, sanctions from the ICO, be immediately denied access to the ad server, be sued by the ad server company for being in breach of contract.
AdUnity’s data minimisation approach is particularly important to B2B publishers that do not use any ad-tech monetisation platforms, but now have a legal obligation to get a consent for their ad server so that the ad server company can harvest the publisher’s data. This obligation not only creates a “consent barrier” for B2B publishers but also creates a legal liability for the publisher, who has been forced into a joint enterprise with the ad server company.
Most ad server companies prioritise their data profiling business models instead of providing the service their publisher clients actually need. Publishers have a choice, either work with ad tech companies more interested in taking your data or work with AdUnity. Sign-up here and one of the team will be in touch.
ADUNITY is an ad technology company based in the UK with offices in both London and Bucharest. We deliver trust, transparency and advanced technology in the programmatic ecosystem. AdUnity provides GDPR ready Consent Based Advertising solutions and transparent sales platforms for publishers (no black boxes) and does not operate an arbitrage model. We comply with the industry programmatic standards and format standards.
Contact: sales@adunity.com
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