Today at a panel before the International Association of Privacy
Professionals (“IAPP”) – Europe Data Protection
Congress in Brussels, leading European Union (“EU”)
data protection authority commissioners cast doubt on the notion
that there could ever be a lawful basis for targeted advertising
based on behavioral profiling, referred to often as interest-based
advertising (“IBA”).
The panel, skillfully moderated by the IAPP's Catlin
Fennessey, brought together Commissioners Hielke Hijmans (Belgium
Data Protection Authority), Bertrand du Marais (French CNIL) and
Meike Kamp (Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of
Information). Whilst setting the stage that their opinions would be
personal and that the EU General Data Protection Regulation
(“GDPR”) compliance would have to be addressed on a
case-by-case basis under the procedures of the regulatory system,
they all were surprisingly candid in expressing skepticism that IBA
could be GDPR compliant, noting
