Glass houses & accountability in the ads space

I’m Alan Chapell. I’ve been working at the intersection of privacy, competition, advertising and music for decades and I’m now writing for The Monopoly Report. If you have a tip to share in confidence, ping me at my last name at Gmail or find me on Twitter or Bluesky.

Our latest Monopoly Report podcast is out with Eric Seufert of Heracles Capital / Mobile Dev Memo. Eric joins Alan to talk about Apple ATT and the latest decision coming from Germany's Federal Cartel Office - and how that may (or may not) impact the mobile ad space.

How do we improve fix digital advertising?

This might be one of the more contentious articles I’ve written (which is saying something).

I started writing this article on February 15, 2025. By the time this piece comes out, we may be well past the news cycle on Adalytics and CSAM and have moved onto something else. (Maybe we’ll hear back soon from the CMA on the Privacy Sandbox or Judge Brinkema’s decision - and either way, I promise to get back to my original mandate next week).

I’m writing this because it gets at the heart of why I started writing for Marketecture in the first place. My remit is privacy, competition & regulatory. What I’m writing about today can be applied to those areas as well.

I’ve been in this industry for a while. We have no shortage of issues to address as we attempt to reach the next level of maturity. In my view, the problem is less about the latest report and more about a cultural mindset.

Collectively, we are often too tribal, too insular, too accepting of bad behavior when it comes from people we like - and all too willing to allow our emotions to drive decision-making.

Ironically, some of the above is why I love this industry. It really IS not just about the work. It’s about the relationships - the friendships we’ve made along the way. When I got married in Nicaragua a few years ago, it wasn’t high school, college or law school friends - it was the cabal of digital media pals who came down to stand with me.

But on some level, that same cultural mindset is holding us back - as it enables a cartoon-like level of disorganization and finger pointing. Where many are willing to talk about these issues in private, but where those discussions don’t seem to make their way to the official channels.

Adalytics and CSAM

I read the report - and encourage you to do so. I also listened to Krzysztof Franaszek talk to Ari and Eric on the podcast. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying that there’s probably something to the allegations in the report.

I’m less concerned with the report itself - and much more concerned by the response to the report from people whom I really respect. More importantly, I’m struck by the dearth of leadership around fixing THIS problem, as well as the myriad other issues being raised by our critics.

Our collective goto responses to criticism

We are NOT big tobacco!

Some of the responses I’ve read (particularly on ad tech Twitter) come off that way to me - where it’s not exactly uncommon to see these types of responses:

1. Question the motivations - I’ve written articles critical of one company or another over the years. And one of the responses when I do that is some variant of “who paid you to write that”? As if the only reason someone would put something out there is if they were paid to do so. My advice: ask whether the information is objectively accurate prior to asking about motivations.

2. Complain about tone - In the privacy space, there are lots of people who are REALLY passionate about their views. That passion sometimes results in a less than ideal tone. It’s unfortunate - you don’t change hearts or minds by calling everyone a numskull, a zealot or a criminal. But equally, a thoughtful person should be able to look beyond the tone of the message.

3. Say (or imply) that the methodology is flawed - I’ll admit. I’ve seen my share of poorly thought through, lazily conceived “research findings” in my day. Pointing to methodological flaws, small sample size, etc… perfectly fair. But be careful - if someone can provide actual examples of ads being placed next to CSAM, complaining about their methodology is only going to take you so far.

Outrage is easy. So is blame. But my question - my challenge really, is… what are we collectively going to do about identifying the root causes of these problems and identifying solutions?

More below… after the jump.

What needs to happen?

In my view, we need our industry associations to lead. And that will likely require some changes - particularly when it comes to the political infighting that’s taken place over the past few years. But it goes beyond the industry associations. We need to change some aspects of the culture around here.

We need:

1. More Collaboration - IAB and ANA need to work together - particularly on this issue. The creation of TAG was part of the journey - not the destination. I’d like to see a collective announcement from the industry associations ASAP. I know.I know. An announcement isn’t meaningful without action. But it’s a start.

2. Less Grift - There are way too many in this space who make money by creating the APPEARANCE of solving a problem rather than actually solving the problem. It’s remarkable how accepting most of us are about this. Yeah, we grumble about it privately. But few are willing to speak out… which brings me to my last point.

3. Courage - We need more people willing to challenge - if you see something, say something. And when someone’s legitimate concerns are hand waved away during Q&A at the next industry conference, we need people in the audience who are brave enough to call BS.

I hope these thoughts are received as an an invitation towards a larger set of discussions. I started writing for Marketecture because I saw an opportunity to help foster an honest dialog on some of the more thorny issues impacting our industry.

Here’s hoping that this piece is viewed as a productive starting point.

Alan’s Hot Takes…

Here are a few additional stories that hit me over the past week:

• Authorized Agents – Very few people on the business side are paying much attention to this set of privacy operations issues. Talk to your privacy and opps teams - and many of them will tell you. Requests to “see” and “delete” information are skyrocketing. Many of them are coming from a relatively new sub-sector in our industry called authorized agents. As a new-ish industry - they would benefit from some rules (sound familiar?) Anyway, Tony Ficarrotta (GC at the NAI) wrote an interesting op-ed piece on the issues being raised as a result of these companies. It’s worth a read.

• Updates to Chrome’s IP Protection - For those waiting for the other shoe to drop after Google’s recent change to it’s policy on device fingerprinting, check out the update to Chrome’s IP Protection (which will make device recognition more difficult if/when it gets rolled out more broadly outside of incognito mode users).

If there’s an area that you want to see covered on these pages, if you agree/disagree with something I’ve written, if you want tell me you dig my music, or if you just want to yell at me, please reach out to me on LinkedIn or in the comments below.