The Belgian Court rules against 'Transparency & Consent Framework'; terms it as 'illegal'

On May 14, The Belgian Court ruled that 'Transparency & Consent Framework' (TCF) was illegal.

TCF, which was 80 percent live on the internet was relied upon by the big tech companies like Google, Amazon, X (previously Twitter), followed by the entire tracking-based advertising industry, to obtain consent for data processing.

This enforcement, as stated by a media report, arises from a barrage of complaints followed by litigation across Europe, which was initiated by Dr Johnny Ryan, Director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties in 2018 against Real-Time Bidding (RTB).

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For seven years, from 2018 till today, the tracking industry has used the TCF as a legal cover for RTB, the advertising auction system that operates behind the scenes on websites and apps, stated the report.

RTB tracks what internet users are in the look out for and where they go in the real world. Then, it continuously broadcasts this data to a host of companies, enabling them to keep dossiers on every internet user. Since there is lack of security in the RTB system, it is impossible to know what then happens to the data, further added the report.

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