How can we end surveillance advertising?

Join Heather Burns from the Open Rights Group, Duncan McCann from the New Economics Foundation, Rebecca Rumball, Adtech legal case class representative and Head of Research at MySociety, and other guests TBC to discuss the growth of surveillance advertising and its impact on people, especially children, and wider society.

Today one in three internet users are children, but they are using a digital environment that was not designed with them in mind. Our everyday activity on the Web, as well as that of our children, is recorded and tracked, with large multinational companies buying and selling this data in order to compile it into detailed profiles that then guide targeted advertising.

The online advertising industry, platforms and tech giants claim that surveillance advertising enables free internet browsing, while rewarding publishers for creating content and enabling advertisers to promote their products or services. This sounds like a win-win situation for all involved. But in truth, individuals, publishers, and even advertisers are all losing out – either in terms of their privacy, revenue or autonomy.

The system is clearly not working. But what can we do to change it? What campaigns are already running in this space? And how can you support them?

This event will be chaired by Oliver Hayes from Global Action Plan, who have also commissioned the report NEF is writing on surveillance advertising.