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 themselves are all, to a lesser or greater extent, losing out in terms of their privacy, revenue, or autonomy (or some combination thereof).

This report explores the concerns around surveillance advertising and its use of large-scale data collection, profiling, and the sharing of children’s personal information. The framework proposed in this report suggests government regulation can reduce the prevalence of these practices.