Online Platforms and Digital Advertising market study, Appendix G: the role of tracking in digital advertising 2020 (CMA)

A research paper from the CMA

From:
Competition and Markets Authority
Published
25 March 2022
Category:
Ad hoc research
Original publisher:
Competition and Markets Authority
Research area:
Advertising and marketing, Future connectivity and internet, Media and entertainment, Retail and digital commerce and Technology
Research topic:
Adtech, Advertising spend, Application programming interface, Audio and radio and Data and AI
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Data privacy, access and control, Digital economy, General and vertical search, Measuring advertising effectiveness, News and publishing, Online retail, Personalisation algorithm, Privacy enhancing technology, Social media and instant messaging, and TV, video and on-demand
Research publish date:
1 July 2020

Abstract

This appendix describes the tracking of users and their devices for personalised advertising and attribution, including:

  • some of the main technologies currently in use for tracking
  • the limitations of current controls available to users and the technical challenges in limiting tracking
  • applications of tracking technologies in adtech, in particular by Google and Facebook
  • estimates of the prevalence and prominence of tracking on the internet and in mobile apps
  • some recent and near-future developments affecting tracking, such as restrictions on third-party cookies and proposals to limit cross-site tracking using privacy-enhancing technologies

It serves as a reference for setting out our understanding of how tracking works to support the conclusions in the main report of our market study.

Citation

CMA, Online Platforms and Digital Advertising market study, Appendix G: the role of tracking in digital advertising (2020) [online] Available at: Appendix G: the role of tracking in digital advertising [Accessed 10 February 2022]

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/online-platforms-and-digital-advertising-market-study#final-report

Updates to this page

Published 25 March 2022
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