The biggest challenge has come. However, after some various implementation processes, the most advertisers think GDPR measures are not such a big problem and the integration can be decently tackled. The setback is that advertising ecosystem is often misunderstood, even by very close and loyal clients. The common misconceptions come from the misunderstandings of how technology works, says Julia Shullman, chief privacy counsel at AppNexus.

What the general status is in terms of how prepared the ad tech firms are?

The biggest companies around the world started the implementation of these measures a couple of years ago. The way that we generally look is the way advertising funds the internet.
Theoretically, we are completely aligned to the norms and we might seem to fully understand, but there is a difference from what actually happens when a consumer shows to a website and which different players contribute to showing ads.
There are different platforms, measurement providers, data providers and when it comes to this big range of providers, this is where GDPR becomes tricky.
The biggest issue is that we might all be well prepared in our own house, but within the ecosystem that involves that many players and showing that ad to a consumer it actually and unfortunately ends up benefiting largest platforms like Google and Facebook because they are able to provide analytics to big clients and ad players and this makes the entire workflow easier. The standards should apply to the ecosystem.
 The biggest challenge to marketers and ad tech players is to work with the entire ecosystem, with the other parties to come up with standardized solutions and to align as well to the new regulations.
In addition, another challenge is the way brand communicate with their clients and how can they reach them and let them know about the GDPR regulations in a very standardized manner what the brands and agencies are doing with their data, how are they using it, to whom their data might be passed along.
It’s not all about how much value marketers are bringing in the chain, but also about how much they value privacy and what they are doing with users’ data.

The third parties that will not align

The regulation favors the biggest companies, but there is a big question mark over the small and niches companies that might really struggle to exist, because there is a big need of having clients that will understand and not only non-disclose clients, but also to ensure the largest players that will wok with them that they’ve become GDPR compliant.