In two weeks, an alliance of 20 media, e-commerce, agency ISP businesses in Germany will officially launch a unified consumer login product, created to give consumers total control of their data privacy and consent settings, which are now stricter under the General Data Protection Regulation. "This is the European market's last chance to change this [imbalance]," said Sven Bornemann, former board member of Germany's online marketers association AGOF, who has been appointed CEO. "With the dominance of Google and Facebook, user data is drifting away to the walled gardens and leaving the German market, meaning publishers and agencies are't able to use that data anymore." Although the alliance is currently made up of German businesses, the plan is to open it up across Europe, starting with the partners that already have offices outside Germany. Via the settings, consumers will be able to choose what data they're willing to share, and with whom, via a selection of tick boxes. The partners insist this one is different from the typical set-up and stands a better chance due to the fact a unified consumer login doesn't lend any strategic advantage to any partner. That's different to many other alliances where publishers agree to pool inventory but often hold back the best data and offers to sell individually, rather than via the alliance itself. Naturally, media agencies and ad tech vendors don't have direct customer data themselves and so won't be part of the actual unified login implementation. Read more