Europe’s €12 billion online auction industry is in crisis, Johnny Ryan explains why

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

I am the Chief Policy and Industry Relations Officer of Brave, a private web browser that prevents its users being tracked, improves their security, and speeds up the web for them. Brave is on a mission to fix the web by giving users a safer, faster and better browsing experience while growing support for content creators through a new attention-based ecosystem of rewards.

My job is part internal data protection officer, part external lobbyist for privacy protections. I am currently trying to move the US debate on a new federal privacy law toward the European model. In Europe I and colleagues at privacy organisations are working to end the massive data breach at the heart of the online advertising auction industry.

What are your plans for the future?

A de facto international standard appears to be emerging, based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. In the coming years, the application of GDPR-like laws for commercial use of consumers’ personal data in the EU, Britain (post EU), Japan, India, Brazil, South Korea, Malaysia, Argentina, and China bring more than half of global GDP under something that is like a common standard. It seems to be that this is an opportunity for innovative businesses, like Brave, to build smart, secure, private products and markets. That is what I want to do.

What will you be talking about at this event? 

I will talk about two problems. The first is Brexit. If Britain makes a “hard” exit from the Union, then there are certain things that every organisation will need to do to continue transferring data between Britain and here and elsewhere in the EU.

The second is online surveillance and advertising. Europe’s €12 billion online auction industry is in crisis. It causes problems for marketers, siphons money away from worthy publishers’ business, and enables disinformation. What is worse, it enables the profiling of every online person. It must be reformed.

What inspired you to attend it?

As a Dubliner, I was honoured to be invited to speak here.

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

I tend not to. I listen to the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly podcast, read the Ad Contrarian, check @jasonkint’s latest tweets, and then dig in to a piece of regulation or an academic paper. If Hardcore History has a new episode, I settle in for that.

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

I am @johnnyryan on Twitter.

Anything else you’d like to add?

BSI will be holding the inaugural BSI International Cyber Resilience Exchange on 26 March 2019. For more information visit: bsicyberexchange.com.

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