(SeaPRwire) – By: Silas Sterling
Ad tech companies have spent years pitching their user data as anonymized and untraceable. A new report from European think tank Interface shreds that marketing lie to pieces.
Interface gathered evidence from 11 intelligence watchdogs for its findings. It found US and EU spy agencies spend millions of taxpayer dollars on commercial personal data.
This practice is called AdInt, or advertising-based intelligence. The data is collected via ad auctions, embedded app software, social media and IoT devices, then aggregated and sold by data brokers.
Study author Thorsten Wetzling noted agencies buy bulk, constantly updated data streams. The data includes mobile device unique IDs, precise location history, and granular user profiles that reveal age, gender, political views and more.
Agencies use direct purchases, intermediaries or front companies to hide their tracks. In the US, the FBI has admitted buying ad-derived location data, while DHS found some agencies broke federal law. In Europe, Austria procured the Tangles surveillance tool, and France’s foreign intel sought browsing data access. Users have no way to opt out of this hidden state surveillance loop.
Author bio: Silas Sterling, a veteran kernel contributor and editor-in-chief of an open-source security digest.