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EU Citizens Being Tracked on Sensitive Government Sites (ft.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

EU governments are allowing more than 100 advertising companies, including Google and Facebook, to surreptitiously track citizens across sensitive public sector websites, in apparent violation of their own EU data protection rules, a study has found. From a report: Danish browser-analysis company Cookiebot found ad trackers -- which log users' locations, devices and browsing behaviours for advertisers -- on the official government websites of 25 EU member states [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. The French government had the highest number of ad trackers on its site, with 52 different companies tracking users' behaviour. Google, YouTube and DoubleClick, Google's advertising platform, accounted for three of the top five tracking domains on 22 of the main government websites. Researchers also studied the websites for EU public health services, finding that people seeking health advice on sensitive topics such as abortion, HIV and mental illness were met with commercial ad trackers on more than half of the sites analysed.

58 comments

  1. Taking a page out of the Russian playbook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It seems that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

  2. Hypocrites as usual. by Quakeulf · · Score: 1, Troll

    One standard for them, one for us, yet the EU is somehow the perfect government system for Europe. Who really benefits from this? What was it like traveling and working and supplying and demanding in Europe in the 1800s? 1700s? 1600s? Has it become better, or worse?

    1. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oppressive unelected distant bureaucracy dictating and tracking every nuance of your life? What's not to love!

      But wait, here comes AmiHomo to smugly tell us all how wonderful it is, and how fucking stupid we are for not understanding why oppressive authoritarian government is actually a utopia.

    2. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly better. If I nowadays see a site asking me for way too many permissions or doesn't allow disabling ad tracking, I now know which sites to blacklist.

    3. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      Few people think the EU is the perfect government, though most politicians want to effect change from within. Personally I think things have gone too far for that to be a viable option, but I don't see how we can tear things doen and rebuild it either. EU democracy and government worries me a fair bit. But the EU (and the EEG before it, and the ECSC before that) have done quite a bit for international commerce. For instance: many companies grumbled at having to get their stuff certified against a bunch of new rules before being allowed to sell it in their own country... until they learned that they only had to certify against those rules in order to sell anywhere in the EU, and that they could do so easily without having to deal with customs and tariffs.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In terms of creature comforts, it got better. In terms of actually having your say, well, I think that's more or less the same, but with a much more pretentious face on it. In terms of freedoms, hmm, hard one. Could well be a lot less actually, relatively cq. comparatively speaking.

    5. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by tsa · · Score: 2

      Much better. No hassle with borders, free roaming on the GSM net, many things are standardized in all of the EU which is handy for manufacturers, etc. And we haven't had a war in more than 70 years, which is long for Europe. Of course the EU is not a perfect government system and there is a lot to improve but it certainly has brought its inhabitants a lot of economic development and safety. Just look at the whole Brexit procedure to get an idea of life before the EU.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    6. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

      This isn't the EU, it's individual member states' governments not complying with EU data protection rules.

      The EU is the one telling these governments to stop allowing companies to track citizens using their web sites. The EU is making things better.

      It's incredible how even when the EU is doing the right thing it gets blamed somehow. Just think about how wrong your view of the EU is that you leapt to this conclusion without apparently even reading the summary, which clearly states that it is member states' web sites at issue.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hah, not a war in 70 years. We helped you with the bombing of Libya (yes, that was your war; you asked us for help). That's nice that your counties have given up sovereignty to unelected politicians in Brussels. You have democratic "representation" but they have no power; the real power in Brussels is unelected. So, as nations go, all you retain is passports; you can't even write your own tax laws. So, not really different than US states, except, of course, that the last war we had, by your definition, ended in 1865, and we directly elect our legislators in DC, unlike you.

    8. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are absolutely blowing the Libertarian-anarchist retard contingent out of their comfort zone, READING? READING? You think they READ? Kendall, the rest of the incels, READING? Lol. No. Just, no.

    9. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh stop with the "unelected" nonsense. They are barely any more "unelected" than the UK or German prime minister, i.e. chosen by the country they represent in a way of their choosing, but ultimately under parliamentary control. With some EU parliament involvement added on top in the last years.
      Any country could choose to have their EU commissioner elected by a popular vote or whatever means they want. Blaming the EU for decisions it is not involved in at all is just silly.

    10. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody asked for help in bombing Libya, France pushed it and the US and UK went along of their own accord. Calling Libya an "European war" is just uneducated Republican reading problems again. Iraq was a war. Stop lying, faggot.

      All your blathering and you've sold your party out to Vladimir Putin and foreign lobbyist money, fool. You boofing alumnius'es just aren't that smart, you get caught in your dumb lies too easily.

      Republican incels simply are too deeply buried in their own assholes to understand Europe's semi-functional governance. They prefer shutting it all down over lies instead. Pity the retards, they can't help themselves.

    11. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      What's missing from the EU is a clear constitution. The EU does not have one, in the form of a concise document outlining the relations between the nations and the union, between the union and its citizens, and the limits of the union's mandate. What we have now is a pile of deliberately* obfuscated set of legalese, a set of treaties rather than a real constitution. The US one wouldn't have been a bad example for us, actually.

      *) Following the referendums rejecting the previous document.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    12. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The EU has not made things better, its actions mean that anyone who has cookies disabled now has to clear a stupid message every time they visit every site. If you've got cookies disabled the EU has done nothing to protect your privacy, but has made the internet a much worse place. If anyone at the EU did actually care about privacy they would have foreseen this issue, but it seems that everyone working on this mandate had cookies enabled so didn't see the problems it would cause.

      They really should have proposed a standard browser flag to disable these messages and accept the default site settings. There is a Firefox extension for clearing the messages, but unfortunately it causes a lot of sites to break.

    13. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The EU has not made things better" = False.

      "anyone who has cookies disabled now has to clear a stupid message every time they visit every site." - Wah? Do you need some vag salve?

      " If you've got cookies disabled the EU has done nothing to protect your privacy" = Bullshit falling out of your ass-like mouth....

      "but has made the internet a much worse place" = And you're illiterate.

      "If anyone at the EU did actually care about privacy they would have foreseen this issue," = Strawman

      "They really should have proposed a standard browser flag to disable these messages and accept the default site settings." = Yeah that's their job? Moron.

      "There is a Firefox extension for clearing the messages, but unfortunately it causes a lot of sites to break." = Welcome to the internet, you must be new and have no idea how things work here.

    14. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      The EU has done immense good for EU citizens. Many of the rights we enjoy at work come from the EU and it's unlikely our national governments would have introduced them without the EU wide harmonization and the economic benefits that come from membership as an incentive.

      Look at things like GDPR. Massively pro-citizen, it forces corporations to treat your data properly. We don't have the massive problems they have in the US with things like robocalls or companies selling personal data to the lowest bidder, because the EU made it illegal.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you serious? They do have one, they couldn't get everyone to ratify it due to niche issues.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_establishing_a_Constitution_for_Europe

    16. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Nobody asked for help in bombing Libya". Funny, but blatantly false. You're just lying, or ignorant enough to believe the propaganda. We didn't send AWACS and JSTARS just for funsies.

    17. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by lgw · · Score: 1

      EU democracy and government worries me a fair bit. But the EU (and the EEG before it, and the ECSC before that) have done quite a bit for international commerce.

      That's the heart of it. What's valuable is a uniform set of trade treaties. Good luck getting that without a central government ever-growing in power. The US didn't even make it 100 years before "the United States are" became "the United States is" (though perhaps that joke is lost on our British brethren).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    18. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your post = EU sucking your dick

    19. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      This isn't the EU, it's individual member states' governments not complying with EU data protection rules.

      To be fair, Cookiebot did not do any testing on europa.eu or other official EU sites for this report. That we lack evidence of tracking (because no testing was done) does not mean that those sites lack tracking. But because I was curious, I had Cookiebot fire off a compliance test on europa.eu while I quickly perused it to see if I could find anything that loaded third-party resources from the usual bad actors. Sure enough, it didn't take me long to land on a page that attempted to load images from Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social networks. While their doing so may be in compliance with the GDPR, anyone here is likely aware of just how easily images can be used to track individuals.

      Right as I was typing the above up, the results of the compliance test hit my inbox. According to Cookiebot's e-mail, europa.eu is "Not compliant" with EU regulations due to its failing at "Prior consent on other than strictly necessary cookies (ePR)".

      I'm not arguing against anything else you're saying, other than the notion that it's only the member states who have non-compliant sites.

      Just think about how wrong your view of the EU is that you leapt to this conclusion without apparently even reading the summary, which clearly states that it is member states' web sites at issue.

      Again, to be fair, the Key Insights page in the report itself says "82% of official EU government websites are harbouring Google marketing trackers" right after saying "89% of official government websites of EU member states contain 3rd party ad tracking". Given the difference in language, it's easy to see how even someone reading the report could misinterpret the two phrases to indicate that the former includes EU sites. Again, it doesn't, but I can see how someone could easily misinterpret it that way.

    20. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1
      Not "niche issues", for instance the French rejected it precisely for the reason I stated previously. From that Wiki:

      The TCE made an effort to simplify jargon and reduce the number of EU legal instruments. However, it is a long document couched in technical terms, which proved unpopular when presented (for example) to French voters in their referendum on the TCE.

      The original TCE was already too complicated to be a constitution in the traditional sense. The new treaties made matters even worse.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    21. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not about hypocrisy. It's about the usual human stuff, incompetence, ignorance and nonchalance. These are present everywhere were people create stuff that others are supposed to use, particularly when "computers" in some way are involved. Why would the EU be different?

    22. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would help if the EU member states were all real countries. For example, Belgium isn't a real country.

    23. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course. That's why Canada didn't become a US state. Canada isn't a real country, the name itself says it all. Canada means village. Even Canadians will admit this fact.

    24. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

      We don't have the massive problems they have in the US

      Here in the US we don't have massive problems. Those bits all just slide around like a greased pig -- no problems whatsoever.

      It may be your data but it's our bits, and which do you think is more important?

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
    25. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      massive problems they have in the US with things like robocalls or companies selling personal data to the lowest bidder, because the EU made it illegal.

      lol. Yeah, bet you don't have a problem with rape either, because the EU made it illegal!

    26. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      And we haven't had a war in more than 70 years, which is long for Europe.

      Just ignore that whole Balkan region ... nothing to see there ...

    27. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by tsa · · Score: 1

      That wasn’t in the EU. It was in Europe though, and I still think it’s a big disgrace that Clinton was the first to try and do anything about it. It was a European question that should have been handled by the EU.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    28. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The EU could not handle it back then and wouldn't be able to do it today. For all its bluster, if the EU were threatened with real warfare by an entity able to seriously damage it, it would either call the US for help or fold immediately. The relative and quickly disappearing well-being of Europeans can be utterly destroyed forever by targeted attacks, and they know it.

    29. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      europa.eu seems to have cookies from Europa Analytics - EU's own cookie tracker.

    30. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      In order to get to the page you cite, you've explicitly followed the "social networks" page link, which you'd expect to have information about social networks given the title. This is a bit different from having trackers on totally unrelated pages.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    31. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Euro-peon faggot troll sure is butthurt.

    32. Re: Hypocrites as usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incel stalker troll sure does love calling people "incel" from the comfort and safety of his mother's basement.

    33. Re:Hypocrites as usual. by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      In order to get to the page you cite, you've explicitly followed the "social networks" page link, which you'd expect to have information about social networks given the title.

      Information? Absolutely. Third-party content that can be used to track users being loaded? Not necessarily. Moreover, regardless of what you or I might expect, that doesn't necessarily mean that it would be allowed.

  3. Breaking News: US Citizens being tracked on pretty by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

    ...well, except for your cousin's archived geocities page. I think that one is totally safe.

  4. Re: Breaking News: US Citizens being tracked on pr by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

    Much all websites, if you were wondering

  5. Rules Are for You, not for Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hi, my name is Government, and I am going to make a lot of rules. These rules apply to you, but not to me.

    1. Re: Rules Are for You, not for Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the first rule of politics.

      Fixed that for you.

  6. simple solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just make it against the law !! Problem solved.

    Just think of the profound respect people will have for authority when they discover all the annoying things that are outlawed!

    It will make them wish the government was running everyone else's lives!

  7. Stupid web "programmers" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this one goes to the account of stupid web "programmers". But perhaps, if the noises are loud enough, their customers will start to take interest in the issue.

  8. Good advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If stool becomes impacted or lodged in the rectum, mucus and fluid will leak out around the stool, leading to fecal incontinence. Call your health care provider if you have mucus or fluid leakage from the rectum.

  9. Bet they didn't provide cookie notices by xack · · Score: 1

    Also can Slashdot fix their "we value your privacy" notice so it dosen't pop up every few hours?

    1. Re: Bet they didn't provide cookie notices by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Slashdot can't fix anything. Just try using the site on mobile.

  10. Not surprised ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    EU governments are allowing more than 100 advertising companies, including Google and Facebook, to surreptitiously track citizens across sensitive public sector websites, in apparent violation of their own EU data protection rules

    Honestly, at this point, the first time I hit a website (and often thereafter) the first thing I check for on a site is 3rd party shit which I block.

    Facebook is blocked everywhere, and any analytic and ad companies get added to the list.

    Hell, even the Financial Times article has 4 parasites linked, two of which I'd not blocked before.

    Fuck ad companies and trackers, they can suck my balls ... I don't consent to whatever non-existent privacy policy of third parties your site links to ... ad companies are parasites, and if you're not blocking them, you're being tracked by them.

    The entire security model of the fucking internet is broken ... we are expected to let every random asshole run scripts, set cookies, or load web-bugs. This is an insane security model, and I refuse to play the game.

    Third party shit will be ruthlessly blocked. If that means your site no longer works, I don't give a fuck.

    This is also why I refuse to use the internet on a mobile device, because I do not have the control over this stuff and then you're just running a wide open browser which lets anybody do anything.

    If you work for an ad/analytics company, you should understand you have forfeited all rights to privacy, because your fucking asshole of a business model is that we apparently have done so.

    I refuse to play this game.

    1. Re: Not surprised ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Install Firefox on your Android device.

      Install Decentraleyes, Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, HTTPS-Everywhere, Cookie Autodelete and NoScript or uMatrix. Job done.

  11. Incompetence or malice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It freaks me out that governments, utilities and even banks put 3rd party trackers on their pages. Never just 1 either. It's always like 20-100 of them.

    They say when some company does something "accidentally racist", that they must not have people of color on staff to catch it before it goes live. So what does this mean, that there is not one single competent person on their staffs without their head up their arse?

    I really can't fathom how things got so universally fucked up with almost no exceptions.

    captcha: slumming

  12. EU so bankrupt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Morally and financially bankrupt, running ads on their government pages. Lmao..

    Maybe you should vote these guys out of office and vote in people who care abo.... oh wait, you don't get to vote..

    LUL

  13. You must be kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So I click on the alternative link to find a site with 62 UBlockOrigin hits, and counting, video with sound automatically starting and a shitload of popups, pompous warnings for not understood EU laws, etc. What a credible source!

    99 hits. Counting...

    Capcha multiply

  14. In semi-related news.... by 3seas · · Score: 2

    The NSA stopped spying on US citizens
    https://www.wired.com/2017/04/...
    However, https://www.aclu.org/blog/nati...

    And https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

    Now who really thinks any government that spent a lot of taxpayer money to build spying capabilities on its taxpayers is going to stop it?

    And if you think that is bad, lets put it in perspective. AI weaponry.... What's ethics? to those who are addicted to think, "if we don't do it someone else will and put us at a disadvantage"

  15. Block 3rt party stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares about EU rules? You can easily fix the problem by disabling 3rd party cookies and scripts. It is as easy as 2 check boxes in your browser options.

  16. Re: Starving Greeks Dont Count? Italians?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many countries are going to see tgeur economies ground under for German supremacy before you see your pro-citizen wealth extraction union for what it is? How many starving non-Germans does it take??

    Cuntface.

  17. This is why you block ads by default by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    The EU is using the data.
    Use a good VPN.
    Block ads on your computer to keep the EU tracking out.
    Reduced the ability of the EU to track your internet usage.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  18. lokiki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can now have your profile and increase your followers by presenting your amazing skills in HD Xxx video editing using viva video. Also, your saved drafts and videos are easily available on your home screen to access them any time. Privacy is the most necessary right in today’s digital world. Viva video has been a step forward in this, and it allows users to use privacy settings with which you can save your data.

  19. Subjects, not Citizens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Citizens can change their government, people in the EU can not, so they're subjects.

  20. Subject to GDPR, no? by misnohmer · · Score: 1

    I would expect those governments of the offending websites should be dealt with as per GDPR, therefore warned, fined, or however any other company violating GDPR is supposed be dealt with. Unless of course EU governments believe that their own laws don't apply to them. This should tell us. Wouldn't be the first government which believed they are above the law.