Unearthed Emails Show Google, Ad Giants Know They Break Privacy Laws (theregister.co.uk)

AmiMoJo shares a report from The Register: Privacy warriors have filed fresh evidence in their ongoing battle against real-time web ad exchange systems, which campaigners claim trample over Europe's data protection laws. The new filings -- submitted today to regulators in the UK, Ireland, and Poland -- allege that Google and industry body the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) are well aware that their advertising networks flout the EU's privacy-safeguarding GDPR, and yet are doing nothing about it. The IAB, Google -- which is an IAB member -- and others in the ad-slinging world insist they aren't doing anything wrong. The fresh submissions come soon after the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) revealed plans to probe programmatic ads. These are adverts that are selected and served on-the-fly as you visit a webpage, using whatever personal information has been scraped together about you to pick an ad most relevant to your interests. [...] The ICO's investigation will focus on how well informed people are about how their personal information is used for this kind of online advertising, which laws ad-technology firms rely on for processing said private data, and whether users' data is secure as it is shared on these platforms.

Comments

Not likely

[110010001000]

Google was founded on the principle of "Don't be Evil". So I sincerely doubt they would do this even in exchange for tens of billions of dollars.

Re:Not likely

[neilo_1701D]

Google was founded on the principle of "Don't be Evil". So I sincerely doubt they would do this even in exchange for tens of billions of dollars.

I think you forgot the sarcasm tag!

Re:Not likely

[110010001000]

The mods here are intelligent, so the sarcasm tag is not needed.

Re: Not likely

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you forgot the sarcasm tag!

Re:Not likely

[rtb61]

Well, look at it this way, they are not doing for the money but for the power. Every possible politician having done something stupid in their teen years, perfect material for extortion and hell tracking down adult politicians, well Google's lobbyists run around with a data set for the politician they wish to offer the carrot or the stick.

Google 'don't be evil', it's called marketing, as are all those really progressive research projects the often amount to nothing but advertising served.

Reality is you should be using https://duckduckgo.com/?q=duck... and you should delete you Gmail account and block incoming Gmail (mark it as spam) and Android, well, it is getting more and more privacy invasive. Not to forget, flooding social media with bullshit about yourself, misinformation is often more effective than trying to keep secrets. That and of course legislating Google out of existence ie nuke it from orbit, the only way to be sure.

The only solution is jail

[WillAffleckUW]

Hard time in prison.

We all know it.

And yet they continue to violate the GPDR and the Canadian Constitutional Right of Privacy.

Because you won't jail them.

Fines won't work.

Re:The only solution is jail

[AmiMoJo]

I think in this case it's not the right to privacy, it's lack of consent. When they run that auction they don't appear to have affirmative, opt-in consent from the user to use their data for that purpose.

Re:The only solution is jail

[bill_mcgonigle]

Because you won't jail them.

And who, pray tell, is going to do that? The bought and paid for politicians?

People need to let go of the fantasy that governments are their daddy. Defend your own privacy if you actually value it, like an adult.

Re: The only solution is jail

[Anonymous Coward]

If I pay for my protection racket (taxes), the least we can expect is to be actually protected from the other gangsters in town.