Pseudonymization will not save online advertising companies from having to seek consent to use browsing and other personal data. This note explains why.
Personal data will become toxic in May 2018 when the General Data Protection Regulation is applied, unless data subjects have given consent.[1]
Some businesses may try to rely on “pseudonymization”, a partial method of anonymization, to continue to use personal data without consent. This would be a mistake, as the GDPR (and a previous opinion from the Article 29 Working Party[2]).…

PageFair statement at European Parliament ALDE shadow rapporteurs session on the proposed ePrivacy Regulation
Lightly edited transcription of PageFair remarks at European Parliament ALDE session on 4 May 2017.
Dr Johnny Ryan: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. I’ve been on both sides: the adtech side, and the publisher’s side, of the particular part of this story that I want to talk about. Several years ago I was at The Irish Times as Chief Innovation Officer, and my background before that was academic: I wrote a history of the Internet, which is now a standard text. Now I work at PageFair, a European adtech company, based primarily in Dublin.
I want to make clear that my remarks are limited only to the ePrivacy Regulation as it affects online advertising. There may be issues with other domains.…
The 3rd-party cookie – the lifeblood of online advertising – may be about to die.
A proposal this month from the European Commission to reform the ePrivacy Directive (ePD) requires mandatory privacy options and educates users to distinguish between 1st and 3rd-parties in a way that will make 3rd-party cookies extinct.
Access the GDPR/ePR repositoryA repository of GDPR and ePrivacy Regulation explainers, official docs, and current status.Access Now The Commission’s proposal also applies beyond cookies. The proposed reform of the ePD will further add to the the disruption that Europe’s new regulatory regime for privacy – the GDPR – will wreak upon to the media and advertising landscape when it applies in May 2018. Caveat: the proposal is subject to negotiation between the Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Ministers.…
Access the GDPR/ePR repositoryA repository of GDPR and ePrivacy Regulation explainers, official docs, and current status.Access Now The Commission’s proposal also applies beyond cookies. The proposed reform of the ePD will further add to the the disruption that Europe’s new regulatory regime for privacy – the GDPR – will wreak upon to the media and advertising landscape when it applies in May 2018. Caveat: the proposal is subject to negotiation between the Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Ministers.…
Several UK internet service providers are signalling their interest in blocking advertising across their network. Despite the hype this is a non-starter. A new EU regulation will make this impossible, and ISPs will not be able to fudge the issue by giving users an opt-in.…