Is Fixing Adtech the Biggest Privacy Win?
A live conversation with Arielle Garcia
For ten years, Arielle Garcia worked inside one of the world's largest advertising agencies. She rose to Chief Privacy & Responsibility Officer, built the practice from scratch — and then resigned publicly, concluding the system couldn't be reformed from within. Today, as COO of Check My Ads, she investigates the machinery that most privacy professionals never see: where the ad dollars actually go, who profits from the opacity, and what it costs the rest of us.
The Future of Privacy
The Future of Privacy is the theme of a webinar series developed in collaboration with Eyd and Personverndagene. We will air approximately one webinar per month until Personverndagene kicks off in mid-September 2026.
Agenda for this webinar
A US federal court has ruled Google an illegal adtech monopoly. The EU has fined them €2.95 billion. Check My Ads Institute has testified before US state legislatures arguing that strong privacy laws would benefit businesses and consumers alike. Yet most privacy professionals have never looked under the hood of the system their regulations are trying to govern.
Out of every dollar spent on programmatic advertising, a significant share never reaches the publisher. It is absorbed by intermediaries, lost to low-quality inventory, or siphoned off by fraud. The same opacity that makes privacy compliance nearly impossible is the opacity that keeps this economic model running. But is it really working — and for whom?
In this conversation we will examine:
- How the adtech machine actually works — and who profits from the complexity
- What the Google antitrust rulings (US and EU) reveal about the system privacy law is trying to regulate
- The relationship between privacy regulation and a functioning advertising market — are they at odds, or do they need each other?
- What Check My Ads Institute's work with lawmakers in the US and EU is uncovering
- Where the industry is heading — and whether there are reasons for optimism
Guest
Arielle Garcia
COO at Check My Ads
Arielle Garcia holds a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and spent ten years at UM Worldwide (IPG), where she rose from administrative assistant to Chief Privacy & Responsibility Officer, a role she created. Her public resignation in 2023 went viral across the advertising industry. As COO of Check My Ads Institute, she oversees the organization's research, campaigns, and policy programs examining the digital advertising ecosystem. During the US federal antitrust trial against Google, she became a central source for journalists, reformers, and policymakers — breaking down complex courtroom proceedings without losing the technical nuance, and coordinating a coalition of 14 civil society groups invested in the outcome. She has since become directly involved in crafting regulatory policy in both the US and EU. Garcia is an Adweek Innovator 50 honoree as of 2025, and was inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Achievement in 2021.
Host
Vibeke Specht
Co-Founder of Peak Privacy
CIPP/E certified privacy professional and author of "From GDPR Confusion to Privacy First Marketing".