Measuring and profiling for online personalization in media while protecting personal data?

While measuring and segmenting media audiences is far from a new concept, the practice has taken tremendous flight with the onset of big data applications and the datafication of our social lives. Based on increasingly pervasive online tracking, consumer profiling has become more and more fine-grained in recent years, creating possibilities for advanced personalization in the online environment, both for recommending content and for targeted advertising. Such personalization efforts are often presented as an improvement of service towards consumers: it will be easier for them to find content of their interest and they will not be bothered with irrelevant advertising. For all that, tracking Internet users also, and rightfully, raises privacy concerns. Privacy protection legislation, such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), addresses these concerns, but may disproportionately disadvantage smaller players in local media markets. Larger (global) players are generally more resilient to regulatory intervention but can also drive downward price pressures and set standards to their advantage. If smaller competitors drop out of the market, the consolidation of large personal data stores in fewer hands will increase, and perversely, negatively affect people’s rights and freedoms overall. The main question with respect to the position of these smaller media players is then: Can the advantages of audience measuring and profiling-based personalization be offered in a sustainable manner while protecting personal data to the utmost extent? In order to critically frame this question we integrate insights from audience studies and political economy of platforms, discussing the role of materiality and mediation in communication and technology studies (Turow, 2012; Gillespie, Boczkwoski & Foot, 2014). The findings are based out the outcomes of three research projects with a focus on measuring and profiling in media for personalization purposes: a European project (CPN) and a Belgian/Flemish project (DIAMOND), both studying possibilities for content personalization by news media providers, and a Belgian/Flemish project (EcoDaLo) that investigates challenges faced by smaller players in advertising confronted by market pressure from technology behemoths like Google and Facebook. Based on the combined results of these three case studies, we will give a multi-level perspective on the specific challenges for national players in the online media market who are facing strong global competition, combined with stricter regulation. We have seen the same key trends develop in all three cases: smaller players struggling to invest the resources needed to compete in personalized online offering, while stricter legal requirements may tip the balance in favor of more privacy-invasive global players. Our analysis will conclude with reflections on new media audience configurations and recommendations for future policy and legislative developments, such as the forthcoming e-Privacy Regulation