Challenging Corporate Data Exploitation

Desde la selva del Amazonas hasta el África subsahariana, las empresas de tecnología buscan ampliar su dominio invirtiendo en infraestructura de conectividad. Si bien es cierto que esto ha traído algunos beneficios, también genera preocupación, pues los gigantes tecnológicos están incursionando en nuevos territorios.

Recent activity demonstrates the need to protect people against the worst excesses of Big Tech dominance over how we interact and relate online. The fight over our data and our autonomy online continues. 

AI chatbots are now being used everyday across different industries and recreationally. We consider the growing possibility that these AI tools are the next home of the multi-billion-dollar advertising industry.

From the Amazon rainforests to subsaharan Africa, tech companies seek to expand their dominance by investing in connectivity infrastructure. While this has certainly brought some benefits, it also raises concerns about big tech's expansion into new territories.

Our 2018 complaint against French AdTech company Criteo led to a €40 million fine for failing to ensure that data subjects had provided their consent to processing, to sufficiently inform them and to enable them to exercise their rights.
Following on from our initial reaction, we answer some questions about the decision below.

Following its 2021 research on diet ads sharing personal data with third parties, PI ran a follow-up analysis of Noom's online test to assess changes and reflect on publishers' data sharing practices.

After a consultation held in 2021 to which Privacy International responded, the government has now decided not to expand the powers of its "National Fraud Initiative". However, recent changes in the UK welfare landscape point to troubling plans for the future.

The privatisation of migration control and policing takes different shapes and forms.
The latest iteration comes in disguise – specifically, in four pastel colours: if you were to look at this company's main website, in fact, you'd only find wristbands and tools to monitor the well-being of elderly people who live alone. But as stated in their annual report, the majority of British company Buddi's revenue originates from the criminal justice market.

Privacy International and UCL student exposes how productivity suite like Office 365 offers features that can enable employers to access all communications and activities on Microsoft services without the employees' knowledge

Privacy International bought a TECNO smartphone, and we discovered serious concerns with the phone’s operating system and pre-installed apps.

Companies selling diet programmes are using tests to lure users. Those tests encourage users to share sensitive personal data, including about their physical and mental health. But what happens to the data? We investigated to find out.

Your personal data can be collected by companies from many different sources and shaped into a "secret identity". This is when companies use information about you to assume your personality traits and predict your behaviour, and sell this profile onto others. But who are the companies behind this practice?

In today’s digital markets, data is increasingly a source of market power. The link between market power and data brings together elements of competition law, which regulates market power, and data protection regulation, which seeks to ensure the fair, lawful and transparent processing of personal data. This paper argues that when tackling anticompetitive data practices by dominant market players, data protection elements should be incorporated into the design of competition law remedies. This paper was written by Alessia D’Amico, PhD student at the European University Institute, during her placement at, and in collaboration with, Privacy International.

Privacy International investigates the use of personal data in political campaigning, focusing on the ecosystem of private companies hired by political parties, the policies of online platforms, and the laws that regulate micro-targeting around the world.

PI presents here 5 profiles of companies involved in political campaigning in order to provide a snapshot of how the digital political campaign sector works and further highlight the opacity and concerns for privacy.

During summer 2020, over 2,500 people signed PI's public petition opposing the proposed Google/Fitbit merger. We sent the petition to the European Commission, who are yet to decide if the merger can proceed. The Commission responded by thanking petitioners for their concerns and cooperation, just as they opened a detailed phase 2 investigation into the merger.

Let us fast forward to 2025, and spend a day in the life of Lila, a GoogBit user...

Join us on a journey to try to solve the mystery behind the advertisers who have uploaded our personal data to Facebook but with whom we've never interacted with before.

As the UK is about to launch its app to trace potential Coronavirus patients; as it launches its 'pilot' we look at its technical functionalities.

Palantir, the US data giant which works with intelligence and immigration enforcement agencies, has responded to our questions about its work on a highly sensitive National Health Service (NHS) project, providing some assurances, passing the buck to the NHS, and raising additional questions.

Throughout these updates, we will do our best to avoid technical terms, obscure references or abstract discussions. We want you to be aware of how data power has grown and why we need to act. This post focuses on data and competition law developments in the UK.

Facebook "Download Your Information" feature only gives you part of the picture. Information about advertisers uploading lists with your personal information is limited in time and prevents users from exercising their rights

Research by Privacy International shows that cheap smartphones come with a hidden cost: pre-installed apps that can't be deleted and that leak your data.

A study by Privacy International reveals how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties. The findings raise serious concerns about compliance with European data protection and privacy laws.