Some trends are progressing at a much a slower pace than expected, such as the feted move away from third-party cookies in favor of more privacy-friendly alternatives with regulators continuing to focus on cookie regulation. Also moving at a slow but steady pace is brand concentration on new first-party data strategies which, even if often less reliant on tracking technologies, brings its own challenges not least around consents and lawful basis for processing, particularly in Europe, with some inconsistent decisions from regulators of late. The use of solutions such as identity resolution and data clean rooms is certainly on the rise in an attempt to placate privacy-conscious consumers and regulators, and more new privacy-conscious technologies are expected to emerge if the mounting guidance around so-called privacy enhancing techniques, or PETs, is anything to go by.

This half year has also seen some faster paced changes. The announcement of the new Data Privacy Framework for personal data transfers from the EU to the US will have everyone in the adtech industry breathing a sigh of relief, even if the threat of more challenges always hangs over such initiatives. Also increasing at speed is the use of AI for automation, improvement of targeting, ad fraud and new ad measurement techniques. However, it could be a case of out of the (privacy) pot and into the (AI) fire as regulators around the world race to provide guidance and, in some cases, regulation in this space.

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