Research Says Major Ad Firms Often Ignore GPC Opt-Out Signals

Summary

webXray says 194 ad services ignored Global Privacy Control signals in a March audit of California web traffic, including Google, Microsoft and Meta. The companies dispute or qualify the findings; failures may violate the CCPA.

Key points

webXray audited California web traffic in March and reported that 194 advertising services failed to honor Global Privacy Control opt-out signals.
The report says Google failed to honor signals 86% of the time and returned a command to set its IDE advertising cookie; Google disputes the report's interpretation.
webXray reported a 50% failure rate for Microsoft. Microsoft said it honors opt-outs from sharing personal data for personalized advertising but may still place operationally necessary cookies.
The report says Meta failed to honor signals 69% of the time, alleging its code loads and sets tracking cookies without checking for GPC. Meta disputed the research and its interpretation of GPC.
The article says ignoring GPC may violate the CCPA and notes prior California fines against Sephora and Disney for similar noncompliance.

Article Details

Event Type: Privacy research report alleging that major advertising companies failed to honor Global Privacy Control opt-out signals on California websites.
Impact: webXray reported that 194 advertising services ignored GPC opt-outs. The report alleges failure rates of 86% for Google, 50% for Microsoft, and 69% for Meta, including advertising or tracking cookies being set despite opt-out signals. Such conduct may violate the CCPA; the companies disputed or qualified the report’s conclusions.