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Wolfie Christl

A while back, I stumbled upon a file I consider the largest piece of evidence revealing how hundreds of data brokers trade personal data on everyone, including super-sensitive data, globally.

Massive investigation by US-based @themarkup and German @netzpolitik_feed, I think this is a must-read for everyone interested in the future of digital technology:
themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/

8 Jun 2023 at 21:30 | Open on mastodon.social
6 comments
Wolfie Christl

The file, dated 2021, describes 650,000 'segments', most of which are lists of digital IDs that refer to people with certain characteristics.

These lists are sold by many data brokers from across the planet via the 'data marketplace' of Xandr, now a Microsoft company, for ad targeting.

For example, lists of people diagnosed with 'depression'.
8 Jun 2023 at 21:33 | Open on mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl

As shown above, Xandr (re)sells 35 lists from different data brokers such as Epsilon, Skydeo or Adstra that are related to 'depression' and contain browser IDs, smartphone device IDs or other personal identifiers on people who are labeled 'depression diagnosis' or 'use Rx treatment for depression', or at least Xandr did so in 2021.

The Markup put the full file on Github and built a tool that makes it easy to search it, e.g. for the term 'divorce'.
themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/

As shown above, Xandr (re)sells 35 lists from different data brokers such as Epsilon, Skydeo or Adstra that are related to 'depression' and contain browser IDs, smartphone device IDs or other personal identifiers on people who are labeled 'depression diagnosis' or 'use Rx treatment for depression', or at least Xandr did so in 2021.
8 Jun 2023 at 21:39 | Open on mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl

Advertisers mostly do not get direct access to the raw data. They pay for the ability to exploit massive amounts of personal data within the adtech industry's distributed surveillance machine, for profiling and targeting.

However, thousand of shady companies in the data supply chain have access, and many data brokers also sell the raw data including all the identifiers, which are a crucial KEY PART of the machine.

8 Jun 2023 at 21:44 | Open on mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl

The Markup has analyzed the full file, and found for example many super-sensitive health segments.

Several data brokers sort people into categories like 'stroke', 'heart disease', 'leukemia', 'insomnia', 'ADHD', ovulation app users or 'pregnancy test' buyers.

And there's much more in the file.
8 Jun 2023 at 21:47 | Open on mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl

Based on location data secretly harvested from smartphone apps and other sources, data brokers sold lists of people who visited churches, mosques or the buildings of US federal agencies or defense contractors via the Xandr data marketplace.

…or on people who visited doctors, casinos, a Western Union branch, Columbia University…
8 Jun 2023 at 21:49 | Open on mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl

According to the file, Xandr (re)sold data related to political beliefs and activities, for example:

- lists of people who were categorized 'pro choice', 'pro life', 'gun control', 'gun rights', 'immigration control', 'immigration rights', 'defund police', 'anti defund police'
- lists of LGBT advocates
- lists of BLM supporters
- lists of people who attended a political protest
8 Jun 2023 at 21:53 | Open on mastodon.social
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