Google Boosts Transparency for Targeted Ads Under the Proposed EU Digital Services Act

To adhere to the Digital Services Act (DSA) of the European Union, Google announced on Thursday plans to share more details about targeted advertisements and give researchers better access to data about how its products function. This new law is most challenging for big corporations like Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Twitter, booking.com, Pinterest, Snapchat, Wikipedia, Zalando, and AliExpress due to their large user bases. The DSA, effective from Friday, mandates companies to take more actions against child sex abuse material and misinformation, be more transparent about the working of their algorithms, bots, and targeted advertisements, and rid their platforms of illegal, unsafe or counterfeit products. 

Google will upgrade the Ads Transparency Center to meet the DSA's specific requirements and provide extra targeting details for ads appearing in the EU. Further, Google Vice President Laurie Richardson said in a blog post, the company will enhance data access for researchers interested in the functioning of Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Play, and Shopping and those investigating systemic content risks in the EU. 

The tech giant from the U.S. will also offer more insight into its content moderation choices, give users different options to communicate with the company, and revamp its reporting and appeal processes to provide particular types of information and context about its decisions.