Personalized Ads

Personalized ads, also known as targeted or behavioral advertising, are advertisements customized to individual users based on their personal data, browsing behavior, interests, demographics, or other characteristics. These ads are delivered using data collected from users' online activities across websites and apps, including search history, pages visited, content consumed, purchases made, and inferred preferences. Personalization makes ads more relevant to users but raises significant privacy concerns because it requires extensive tracking and profiling. Under the GDPR, serving personalized ads based on user tracking typically requires consent, as it doesn't fall under the narrow categories of lawful bases like legitimate interest (which is heavily scrutinized for such invasive processing). The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for cookies and similar technologies used for behavioral advertising. The CCPA gives consumers the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information, which includes sharing data with ad networks for personalized advertising. The CPRA specifically addresses personalized advertising by creating a right to opt-out of sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising. Companies must implement consent mechanisms, honor opt-out signals like Global Privacy Control, provide clear notice about ad practices, and maintain records of consent.