Mozilla compares major online platform online advertising transparency

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has mandated that the largest online platforms and search engines maintain public ad libraries. This legislative requirement, aimed at enhancing transparency in digital advertising, is particularly timely with upcoming elections in the EU and globally. These libraries are intended to provide insights into advertising content and campaign objectives, offering a valuable resource for researchers and the public to understand the influence of commercial communications.

Mozilla foundation conducted a “stress test” on the ad repositories of several major services including AliExpress, Apple App Store, Bing, Booking.com, Alphabet (Google Search and YouTube), LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Zalando. The goal was to assess the robustness, reliability, and user-friendliness of these repositories under various conditions, reflecting real-world usage demands.

The findings revealed significant variations in the approaches to ad transparency across the platforms. While some platforms demonstrated a commendable level of transparency, others showed areas in need of significant improvement. The effectiveness of these ad libraries as tools for scrutiny and research largely depends on their practical usability and the comprehensiveness of the data they provide.

Encouragingly, despite the shortcomings, the establishment of these ad libraries is a step forward in the right direction. Mozilla recommend that stakeholders, including legal professionals and researchers, explore these repositories to better understand their functionality and limitations. Further, continuous improvement and adherence to the DSA’s requirements will be crucial for these platforms to fulfill their intended role in promoting transparency.