If the Advertising Research Foundation’s Town Hall on the ad industry’s code of conduct concerning data collection and consumer privacy is any indication, don’t expect a consensus anytime soon. The panel discussion could be summarized as a debate between two opposing philosophical views: One represented by Rolfe Swinton, director of data assets at Germany’s GfK, who took the progressive view on consumer’s right to data self-sovereignty, popular among Europeans; and another held by digital ad tech native Rick Bruner, who had a more laissez-faire view that no real harm is done to consumers by using their personal data to target them with advertising.
