WhatConverts

Ad Tech Faces Tougher Privacy Regulations and Major Settlements

Mid-2025, the ad tech privacy landscape is dominated by regulatory tightening and enforcement targeting major platforms. Meta reached a UK settlement to halt targeted personalised ads for a UK user and was fined in the EU for insufficient user consent options in data collection. In the US, Google agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle two lawsuits alleging location and search tracking and facial recognition data collection. TikTok was fined €530 million for concerns about how it protects user information, and LinkedIn faced a lawsuit from Premium customers claiming private messages were disclosed to third parties without permission. The ICO signaled intensified scrutiny across top UK sites, while industry players push toward privacy-first approaches and real-time compliance tools to mitigate risk.

UK Regulator Prioritizes Online Tracking and User Consent

UK privacy regulator ICO has three 2025 strategic priorities, with online tracking at the top alongside children’s privacy and AI/automated decision-making guidance updates. Florence Greatrix, ICO's principal policy advisor for online tracking technology, innovation and enterprise, told an IAB Tech Lab privacy event in New York that it is a really big year for online tracking, underscoring the need for advertisers, publishers and ad tech partners to prioritize consent compliance. The ICO's research finds people value personalized ads but want meaningful control and choice, and the regulator's 2025 road map centers on giving users meaningful consent signals and easier withdrawal across the supply chain. Separately, IAB Tech Lab's PETs Working Group, launched in 2022, has produced specs (seller-defined audiences, PAIR) and best practices for data clean rooms and ID-less solutions. IAB plans a Privacy Lab to test PETs in live programmatic environments, including differential privacy and secure MPC, with an open-source trusted server prototype for programmatic advertising.

Google's Fingerprinting Reversal: Opportunity or Privacy Risk?

Google announced a policy shift effective February 16 that will stop prohibiting fingerprinting by advertisers using its ad products, reversing a prior stance that fingerprinting was opaque and potentially harmful to user choice. The company said the change reflects new privacy-enhancing technologies and supports emerging channels like connected TV, while allowing data such as IP addresses to be used under secure, responsible handling. The move drew praise from advertisers and trade groups, including Mondelēz, NAI, and IAB Tech Lab, who say it expands opportunities while preserving privacy safeguards. Privacy advocates and regulators pushed back; the UK ICO called the move irresponsible and warned fingerprinting must be lawfully and transparently deployed. Industry observers noted ongoing challenges around user awareness and consent, arguing transparency remains difficult while the debate over fingerprinting and user privacy continues.