• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 31, 2018

Google continues to take a conservative approach on the European Union’s General Data Protection Privacy Regulations -- and it seems to be paying off.

While most companies have been scrambling to comply with GDPR, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) dubs Google as the “early winner” in Europe’s new data protection law -- mainly because the company is making sure the companies it works with gather individual consent for targeted ads at far higher rates than many competing online ad services.

Some ad exchanges, like Dataxu, say they have not seen their ad volume fall, but as of Wednesday, two-thirds of their spots were not “transmitting the consent” Google deems necessary for targeting.

Ad exchange AppNexus and video-ad vendor Teads told the WSJ that during the weekend the companies struck temporary yet separate deals, assuring Google they have consent to target ads to consumers. That’s the only way Google will allow their ad inventory to go through Google DoubleClick Bid Manager.

Google told the WSJ that it has been serving up non-personalized advertisements on websites that cannot prove compliance or do not have full consent to target them an ad.

“Since the law went into effect Friday, Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager, or DBM, a major tool ad buyers use to purchase targeted online ads, has been directing some advertisers’ money toward Google’s own marketplace where digital-ad inventory can be bought and sold, and away from some smaller such ad exchanges and other vendors. That shift has hurt some smaller firms, where Google says it can’t verify whether people who see ads have given consent,” reports the WSJ.

Google also took a step this week to partner with KPMG, releasing an assessment tool for companies to meet European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.

KPMG will create a portfolio of industry solutions built on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as part of the collaboration. They will include customer service, contract management, cyber security, regulatory compliance, and business and process performance.

The partnership makes available two tools: KPMG Intelligent Interactions for creating a differentiated customer experience, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Assessment and Compliance solutions for managing customer data and privacy.