Search

This commentary reports on gambling advertisements served to Australians on Facebook in 2021-2022 that we discovered through a research project that uses novel data donation infrastructure to improve the observability of platform-based advertising. Preliminary findings show that advertisements for online casinos appear on social media and are served to people tagged as located in Australia despite laws that prohibit both the operation and advertising of these gambling services in Australia, and in apparent contravention of company policies that require gambling advertisers to follow applicable law. We outline the harms of normalizing gambling on digital media and argue that the limited accountability of digital platforms for online advertising can contribute to these harms. We suggest ways in which the law and its enforcement and platform responsibility can be reformed to prevent harmful gambling advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most substantive developments in the delivery of marketing activities in recent years has undoubtedly been the emergence and growth of Internet shopping. This relatively new form of communication has revolutionised the buying and selling of products and services, enabling customers to select and import items – many of which are not available through local shop fronts – directly from vendors around the world with the click of a button, and often at a reduced price. Although online shopping has provided a new international landscape to conduct business, the use of this medium and the absence of face-to-face interactions has presented the law with numerous challenges in terms of the scope of consumer protection. This article examines the nature and extent of misleading and deceptive online advertising and looks at the degree to which common law and legislation have evolved to deal with false, deceptive or misleading advertising on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online behavioural advertising (OBA) comes to consumers at a price. Often unknowingly, people deliver up commercially-valuable personal information as a condition of online user experience, functionality and access. Websites are increasingly tracking user behaviours for commercial purposes and social media derives its income largely from data collection and advertising targeted to the personal disclosures and behavioural attributes which are its data-production mainstay. In this context, consumers face a plethora of information collection practices, all designed to generate data analytics including inferential and predictive profiling to create a ‘digital identity’ for OBA purposes. In this subterranean exchange, consumers are economically redefined as data subjects and advertising targets; a reframing which is perhaps why the OBA industry faces a crisis in consumer concern, both as to privacy and trust. This paper proposes that the regulatory control of OBA in Australia is in disarray. Consumer ignorance of online privacy management and OBA practices is demonstrable. Industry transparency, disclosure, consent processes and compliance practices are questionable. Regulator interest is minimal, industry self-regulation is weak and consumer technical ability and personal responsibility is a last fragile line of defence. Data breaches are ubiquitous in a crowded and poorly-audited supply chain, and entail significant adverse consumer consequences. Yet despite these serious concerns, Australian regulators are failing to respond to OBA issues, either through mandating greater industry disclosure or through regulatory action. The author seeks to expose these weaknesses in calling for consumer and privacy regulators to take more meaningful action to better protect consumers' interests online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]