Building on critical analyses from earlier research on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it examines the extent to which existing frameworks succeed or fail in protecting consumers against potentially manipulative, algorithmically driven persuasion practices. The discussion further situates these developments within the evolving EU regulatory landscape, including the Digital Services Act and the proposed Digital Fairness Act, to assess their implications for transparency, consumer control and consumer autonomy. By tracing the conceptual shift from individual privacy protection toward systemic notions of digital fairness and vulnerability, I hope to offer a comprehensive perspective on the potential and limitations of current regulatory instruments in genuine consumer empowerment in the contemporary advertising ecosystem.

Speakers Bio
Joanna Strycharz is an Assistant Professor of Persuasive Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on advertising in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence, with a particular emphasis on consumer vulnerability, empowerment, and individual and societal consequences of algorithmic persuasion. She is the recipient of a prestigious Dutch Research Council Veni grant for her project on vulnerability exploitation through algorithmic persuasion and co-directs the Digital Communication Methods Lab, where she fosters interdisciplinary collaborations to advance computational advertising research. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. She serves on the Editorial Review Boards of four different advertising journals, is an associate editor for Journal of Advertising, and was an associate editor for Journal of Interactive Advertising. She is the recipient of the 2024 Mary Alice Shaver Promising Professor Award and the 2021 AEJMC Emerging Scholar Grant. Beyond academia, she actively contributes to debates on ethical and responsible advertising and works with policymakers, and consumer organizations to translate research into societal and policy impact.

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