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This is a monetization feature, not a growth catalyst, but it matters because it shifts privacy management from a one-time consent event to a recurring friction point. The second-order effect is that opt-out rates will likely be materially higher than management expects, especially on desktop browsers where preference resets and multi-device inconsistency create user confusion. That typically compresses addressable ad inventory quality before it shows up in headline traffic metrics.

The real loser set is not just ad-tech intermediaries; it is any publisher with weak first-party identity resolution and low-frequency users who are least motivated to re-consent. Over the next 1-2 quarters, expect a widening gap between logged-in, subscription-heavy properties and open-web publishers that rely on behavioral targeting. That should reinforce consolidation around platforms with durable identity graphs and better deterministic data capture.

The contrarian angle is that the market may overestimate the immediate revenue hit. In the near term, most users will not aggressively change settings, and privacy fatigue tends to produce higher default acceptance than advocates assume. The bigger risk is longer-dated: repeated consent prompts can reduce session depth and ad efficiency, which compounds gradually and is harder to reverse once users habituate to privacy controls.

No direct ticker is named, so this is best framed as a thematic read-through on digital ads and privacy infrastructure. If anything, the incremental compliance burden modestly benefits larger platforms with stronger consent tooling and hurts smaller publishers whose CPMs are already under pressure from signal loss.