Google expands its ads transparency centre to adhere to EU rules

Google is making alterations to its ad transparency and available data in order to comply with Europe’s Digital Services Act. It will be expanding its ad transparency centre, which is its global searchable repository of advertisers across all its platforms. It will also be expanding its data access for researchers by building on its prior efforts to help advance public understanding of its services.

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"We will increase data access for researchers looking to understand more about how Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play and Shopping work in practice, and conducting research related to understanding systemic content risks in the EU,” said Google’s VP of trust and safety, Laurie Richardson and YouTube’s VP of product management, Jennifer Flannery O’Connor in a statement.  

Other changes Google is making include shedding more light on its policies so people can easily access information on a product-by-product basis. Additionally, it will also expand transparency reporting to inform discussions about the free flow of information and show citizens how government policies can impact access to information. Lastly, it is committed to assessing risks related to its online platforms and search engine, making sure that it is in line with the DSA requirements.

Google launched its ad transparency centre in March this year, which is a searchable repository that allows users to find out more about the ads that one sees on Google’s platforms.

“This one-stop shop was designed with you in mind by ensuring you have easy access to information about the ads you see from Google,” a statement by Google said.

Earlier this year, Google was hit with a lawsuit alleging that it used data from millions of users online without their consent and that it violated copyright laws so that it could train and develop its artificial intelligence systems, according to legal documents seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

"It has very recently come to light that Google has been secretly stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet by hundreds of millions of Americans. Google has taken all out personal and professional information, our creative and copywritten works, our photographs, and even our emails—virtually the entirety of our digital footprint —and is using it to build commercial artificial intelligence (AI) products like Bard, the chatbot Google recently released to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT," it read, adding:

For years, Google harvested this data in secret, without notice or consent from anyone.

It alleged that as part of its theft of personal data, Google illegally accessed restricted, subscription-based websites to take the content of millions without permission and infringed at least 200 million materials explicitly protected by copyright, including previously stolen property from websites known for pirated collections of books and other creative works.

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