Personalized ads — whether you like them or not — are a regular part of the online experience these days, as publishers like Google collect more data about our clicking, streaming and spending habits and sell it to advertisers. But you may not know that advertisers are competing to get that data in an online auction that lasts just seconds.

But in recent months, that practice has been questioned and challenged by United Kingdom and Irish privacy regulators. Kai Ryssdal spoke to Patience Haggin of the Wall Street Journal who wrote about how this process is facing increased scrutiny in Europe and why.

Click on the player above to hear the full interview.