"Free" online service in exchange for targeted advertising : the business model with feet of clay

Abstract

France is currently embarking on the path of personalized advertising on television. The idea is to give traditional media access to a financing model that is very common online and is considered much more lucrative than traditional "contextual" advertising. It requires a precise knowledge of the recipients' interests: it is a complete and individualized profile that is sold to the advertiser. At the same time, however, a number of decisions handed down by personal data protection authorities on the basis of the GDPR raise doubts as to whether this business model can continue. Although it is not expressly prohibited by European texts, it is caught in the vice by successive decisions rendered on the lawful basis of processing. It seems difficult to continue to base personalized advertising on the "consent" of Internet users or viewers. "Legitimate interest" also seems to be a dead end. What about "necessity for the performance of the contract"? The answer is complex and uncertain. Thus, in small steps, without much ado, we risk ending up with a de facto ban on a business model that is now titanic. Perhaps it would have been preferable to reach this result at the end of a frontal political and social debate, rather than as a result of a pile of apparently technical decisions.