Avoiding the Next Headline: What Privacy and Security Teams Need to Know Heading Into 2026

Posted

November 18, 2025

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boltive at fall psf 2025

At this year’s Privacy and Security Forum, our Head of Privacy Christine Desrosiers and Jodi Daniels, founder of Red Clover Advisors, shared a message that resonated with the room: privacy and adtech risks are rising fast, and automation alone cannot keep pace.

Many tools serve as essential parts of the ecosystem, but they still require thoughtful configuration and ongoing oversight. Digital environments shift every day. Vendors update code. New pages launch. Tracking behavior changes. Without active monitoring, even well-designed systems drift, and small failures can escalate into regulatory exposure or negative headlines.

 

The Risk Patterns Emerging Across the Ecosystem

During the session, we outlined clear patterns that show up across organizations of all sizes and industries:

Consent signals that do not transmit correctly. CMPs may capture choices, but donot always pass them to downstream systems.

Tags, pixels, and cookies that continue to fire after opt out. Even a single misfiring vendor can create material legal risk.

Downstream vendors collecting data without authorization. Partners add partners, often without disclosure, creating hidden tracking chains.

Ads that trigger data sharing the brand never approved. Creative served on external sites can activate unexpected pixels or data transfers.

These issues are rarely intentional. They are the natural result of complex, interconnected systems that evolve faster than manual audits can keep up.

 

Why Boltive Exists

Boltive was built to give teams visibility into the behaviors other tools and manual checks often miss.

Our patented persona technology simulates real user paths. Personas opt in. They opt out. They trigger GPC. They browse pages, click ads and follow the flows that real people follow. As environments change, personas surface the places where controls stop working.

 

This combination of simulation and continuous monitoring helps teams:

· Detect failures early

· Maintain accurate consent handling

· Identify unauthorized data sharing

· Understand ad behavior on the open web

· Strengthen trust with regulators, partners and customers

· Reduce the risk of costly enforcement actions and litigation

 

Privacy and adtech are not static systems. They need verification as they evolve. Boltive gives teams the clarity to adapt as conditions change.

 

Moving Forward with Confidence

We appreciated the discussions at PSF and the conversations that followed. Organizations want to do the right thing. They want accurate systems, compliant practices and trustworthy digital experiences. The challenge is maintaining that accuracy across a fast-moving ecosystem.

 

If you want to understand how these risks show up onyour own properties or campaigns, schedule a demo and chat with one of our experts today.