The after party: Cynical resignation in Adtech's pivot to privacy

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  • McGuigan, Lee
  • West, Sarah Myers
    • Other Affiliation: AI Now Institute, New York, NY, USA
  • Sivan-Sevilla, Ido
  • Parham, Patrick
    • Other Affiliation: College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Abstract
  • Digital advertising and technology companies are resigned to a new privacy imperative. They are bracing for a world where third-party tracking will be restricted by design or by law. Digital resignation typically refers to how companies cultivate a sense of powerlessness about privacy among internet users. Our paper looks through this optic from the other end of the lens: How is the digital advertising industry coping with the increasing salience of privacy? Recent developments have forced companies to implement “privacy-preserving” designs—or at least promise some semblance of privacy. Yet, the industry remains dependent on flows of data and means of identification to enable still-desired targeting, measurement, and optimization. Our paper analyzes this contradiction by looking at systems that aim to replicate existing functionalities while protecting user “privacy.” We call this a form of “cynical resignation” and characterize its key maneuvers as follows: (a) sanitizing surveillance; (b) party-hopping; and (c) sabotage. We argue that this “cynical resignation” to a privacy imperative represents a policy failure. In the absence of decisive interventions into the underlying business models of data capitalism, companies offer techno-solutionism and self-regulations that seem to conform to new laws and norms while reinforcing commitments to data-driven personalization. This may benefit the largest tech companies, since their privileged access to first-party data will make more companies reliant on them, and their computational power will be even more valuable in a world where modeling is used to compensate for the loss of third-party data and traditional methods of personal identification.
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  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Rights holder
  • SAGE Publications
License
  • Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Journal title
  • Big Data & Society
Journal volume
  • 10
Journal issue
  • 2
ISSN
  • 2053-9517
Copyright date
  • 2023
Publisher
  • SAGE Publications

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