Privacy Digest 12/26
Meet Ghostery Zap: The Ad Blocker That Starts With Your First Click
Ghostery Zap turns traditional ad blocking on its head. Instead of blocking ads everywhere at once, you decide which websites should be ad-free. Click "Zap Ads" once, and Ghostery remembers your choice forever. Every future visit to that site stays clean automatically. By letting users build their own ad-free web one website at a time, Zap makes ad blocking easier to understand, easier to manage, and less intimidating for newcomers. It also quietly blocks many advertising trackers and helps reduce cookie consent interruptions, creating a calmer and more private browsing experience.
ghostery.com
Regulated for Medicine, Unregulated for Data
Users said "no." Their data was still shared in most cases. Together with Verified Data, Ghostery audited 20 pharmacy websites across Europe and the United States to test whether rejected consent choices were actually respected. Only two pharmacies stopped tracking after users opted out. The findings raise broader questions about whether consent banners provide meaningful control or simply the appearance of choice. Even more surprising, none of the pharmacies meaningfully engaged with the findings despite receiving detailed reports before publication.
ghostery.com
Competition Regulator ‘Must Use Its New Powers To Rein In Big Tech’
UK regulators face pressure to act faster against Big Tech under new digital competition powers. A coalition including Epic Games, Mozilla, Which?, and DMG Media warns that slow enforcement could let dominant platforms strengthen control over search, browsers, app stores, and AI. They argue weak action risks reduced choice, lower quality, weaker privacy protections, and fewer chances to switch services. The CMA rejects the criticism, pointing to investigations and interventions involving Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.
thetimes.com