The Markup interviewed Alexandre de Streel, CERRE’s Academic Director, on the regulation of online advertisements, and more specifically, on targeted advertising in the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Included in the DSA is the measure of a ban on so-called dark patterns —“design choices that steer people into decisions they may not have made under normal conditions—such as the endless clicks it takes to opt-out of being tracked by cookies on many websites.”
De Streel told this measure is ‘critical’ because of how tech companies responded to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s 2016 tech regulation.
Read more on tougher enforcement of the GDPR, stricter rules about obtaining consent, and the dark patterns ban in the full online interview by The Markup (7 February 2022).