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Content type: Long Read
30th January 2023
In August 2021, PI published the report An unhealthy diet of targeted ads where we uncovered how personal data was shared by diet companies through their online ads and online testing. Our findings were quite grim, with highly sensitive personal data shared with third parties without consent.
Following this initial report, we performed follow-up research with the same methodology and by September 2021 we reported a number of positive changes from two of these websites: BetterMe and VShred.…
Content type: Advocacy
28th June 2022
In our submission we outline our concerns with the industry as a result of extensive technical research and complaints taken to data protection authorities in Europe as a result.
Data brokers must specifically be included in "actors in scope."
We recommend that "data brokers" are specifically included in the list of "actors in scope". A data broker is a company that collects, buys and sells personal data and this is often how they earn their primary revenue. It is a term that is entering…
Content type: Video
4th March 2022
Links
More information about how Bounty illegally exploited the data of 14 million mothers and babies: https://pvcy.org/podillegalexploitation
Sign up to our corporate exploitation email list to find out more about our work on brands and the advertising supply chain: https://pvcy.org/podsignup
Original podcast: https://privacyinternational.org/video/3787/podcast-marketing-and-maternity
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Orginally Recorded 12th March 2020.
We can’t believe we’re having to say this, but…
Content type: Press release
30th November 2021
Today, following an in-depth investigation, the UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA) assessed that the competition concerns can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety. This is a very significant decision. Facebook, the largest provider of social media sites and display advertising in the UK, acquired Giphy, the largest provider of GIFs. The merger would further increase Facebook’s dominance and Facebook would have benefitted from Giphy’s data collection practices and…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
El identificador de publicidad es un identificador único que ofrece el sistema operativo MacOS y que los anunciantes pueden utilizar para identificarte con precisión. Facilita que los anunciantes o las empresas que comercian con datos puedan crear un perfil que posteriormente puede ser usado para personalizar la publicidad o para otros fines.
Cómo desactivar la publicidad personalizada
Ya hemos escrito con anterioridad sobre los riesgos que los anuncios personalizados suponen para tu privacidad…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Configuración
En internet, las solicitudes de acceso a sitios web se dirigen a direcciones IP. Dado que las direcciones IP son difíciles de recordar, solemos dirigirnos a los hosts por su nombre (por ejemplo, privacyinternational.org). Por eso, y porque las direcciones IP pueden cambiar con frecuencia, cuando tu computador quiere acceder a un servidor por el nombre del host, le pregunta a un servidor DNS cuál es la dirección IP de ese nombre del host, para poder enrutar la solicitud.…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Introducción
Pi-hole es un bloqueador de anuncios de uso general que cubre toda la red y la protege de los anuncios y los rastreadores sin que sea necesario configurar cada uno de los dispositivos. Tiene la capacidad de bloquear anuncios en cualquier dispositivo de la red (por ejemplo, electrodomésticos inteligentes) y, a diferencia de las extensiones del navegador, Pi-hole bloquea los anuncios en cualquier tipo de software.
La configuración general funciona de la siguiente manera (Fig. 1).…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Instalación
Al igual que para las demás extensiones, para instalar Firefox Multi-Account Containers debes visitar la página de extensiones de Mozilla Firefox y hacer clic en Agregar a Firefox (Fig. 1) y, a continuación, hacer clic en Añadir (Fig. 2).
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Cuando accedes a un sitio web, tu navegador envía una cadena llamada agente de usuario que recoge el nombre de tu navegador, el sistema operativo y otros metadatos técnicos de tu dispositivo. Desafortunadamente, los rastreadores suelen abusar de estos metadatos para crear una huella digital de tu sistema e identificarte con precisión en toda la web. Para limitar la capacidad de obtener tu huella digital, puedes instalar un conmutador de agente de usuario para cambiar periódicamente el agente de…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Las cookies permiten que los sitios web guarden los datos de una sesión, como las credenciales de acceso o los artículos en el carrito de compras, con el propósito de que no pierdas la información al cerrar la página. Desafortunadamente, con frecuencia se abuse de las cookies para rastrear tu actividad en línea en la web. Utilizar una extensión especializada te permite limpiar las cookies con regularidad para asegurarte de que tu navegador no guarde ninguna cookie no deseada, lo que permite…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Las redes de distribución de contenidos (CDN) son redes geográficamente distribuidas de servidores proxy que buscan ofrecer funciones como mejorar la disponibilidad y el rendimiento de los sitios web. Aunque el objetivo es loable, también implica que los proveedores de CDN reciben metadatos vinculados con los sitios web que visitas (donde están instalados). Sabiendo esto, quizá sea conveniente sacrificar estas ventajas adicionales y prescindir de los grandes proveedores de CDN (como Google y…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
uBlock Origin (que no debe confundirse con uBlock, que es un proyecto diferente) es un bloqueador de anuncios independiente y de código abierto que utiliza una lista depurada de servidores. Evita que tu navegador se conecte a estos servidores para mostrarte anuncios.
Nota: En el mercado hay muchos bloqueadores de anuncios y puedes ensayar alternativas. Al utilizar un bloqueador de anuncios independiente, de código abierto y gratuito, es más probable que evites usar productos con conflictos de…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Privacy Badger es una extensión para el navegador que bloquea los anuncios y los rastreadores. Esta extensión lleva una lista actualizada de los rastreadores que detecta mediante pruebas automatizadas (realizadas través de servidores especializados y no desde tu computador) y periódicamente envía la lista actualizada a tu navegador. De este modo, cada vez que detecta un servidor de anuncios nuevo (por ejemplo, si una nueva empresa de rastreo lanza su producto o una empresa ya existente…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Cómo cambiar la configuración en el menú de Firefox
Para cambiar la configuración básica de privacidad en Firefox, accede al menú de preferencias haciendo clic en Edición > Preferencias en la barra de menús, o escribiendo about:preferences en la barra de URL, y luego haciendo clic en Privacidad y seguridad (Fig. 1)
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Advertencia: Con macOS Big Sur, Apple amplió el soporte para las extensiones del navegador, las cuales ya están disponibles en la App Store. Aunque el ecosistema de herramientas de privacidad sigue siendo reducido, es posible que actualicemos esta guía en el futuro.
Para acceder al menú de configuración, abre la aplicación Safari y en la barra de menú haz clic en Safari > Preferencias... (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Atención: Si usas iOS 14+, los anuncios personalizados están activados por defecto.
Cómo detener el rastreo realizado a través de múltiples apps en iOS
Ya hemos escrito con anterioridad sobre los riesgos que los anuncios personalizados suponen para tu privacidad digital.
Si quieres detener el seguimiento entre múltiples aplicaciones, el primer paso es ir a Configuración > Privacidad > Rastreo. Aquí, asegúrate de desactivar Permitir que las apps soliciten rastrearte DESACTIVAR (Fig.1).…
Content type: Guide step
11th October 2021
Blokada es un bloqueador de anuncios que actúa como una VPN para bloquear el tráfico no deseado con base en hostnames (urls). Esto evita que las aplicaciones ejecutándose en tu dispositivo carguen anuncios y datos maliciosos.
Instalación
Para instalar Blokada, visita su página en la App Store de Apple, haz clic en Obtener (Fig. 1), y confirma haciendo clic en Instalar (Fig. 2).
Content type: Examples
17th June 2021
After developing software that automatically recognises cookie banners that do not comply with the GDPR (usually because they do not provide a clear one-click option to reject all non-essential cookies), noyb has sent over 500 complaints to companies they consider non-compliant and given them a one-month grace period to change their practices. Along with the complaints, noyb provides a step-by-step guide on how to comply. They intend on generating over 10,000 complaints in this way in the…
Content type: Examples
17th June 2021
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has filed a lawsuit in Hamburg against three AdTech industry trade bodies including the Interactive Avertising Bureau (IAB). Members of the IAB include big tech companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter...), data brokers (Equifax, Experian, Acxiom...) and advertising agencies (Groupm, Publicis, IPG...).
The lawsuit follows the filing in 2018 of complaints with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and UK Information Commissioner (ICO), which…
Content type: News & Analysis
20th May 2021
On May 18th 2021 Google held its annual developer conference, Google I/O, where the company announces a number of innovations, products and software updates that will hit the market in the months to come. Among these announcements, the company introduced Android 12, its latest mobile Operating System (OS), that came with headline grabbing privacy features.
Possibly trying to catch up with Apple, which is positioning itself as a privacy-friendly tech company and gave the adtech industry a kick…
Content type: Examples
22nd March 2021
Sidestepping the need to obtain a search warrant, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been accessing smartphone location data by buying it from private marketing that typically embed tracker in apps. This data, which maps the movement of millions of cellphones in America, was collected from ordinary cellphone apps, to which users gave access to their location. In this particular instance, it was used by the DHS to search for undocumented immigrants according to the Wall Street…
Content type: Advocacy
3rd March 2021
Background
Giphy is a searchable database for Graphic Interchange Format (‘GIF’) files, stickers, emojis, text, videos and Arcade (remixable video games). This database can be queried through the Giphy search engine, either via its main website (giphy.com), its API or its SDK. Content obtained can then be shared via their URL or be integrated in another service such as a website or an app. Well known integrations of Giphy include messaging services like Whatsapp, Slack, Signal, Telegram, or…
Content type: Case Study
28th January 2021
Your phone is the ideal profit tool for data brokers and advertisers: it's always in your pocket and can be used both as a means of collecting information and serving you ads based on that information. But how does this data collection happen through your apps?
Most, if not all, apps on our phones use Software Development Kits (SDKs). SDKs themselves are not trackers, but they are the means through which most tracking through mobile apps occurs. These kits are provided by third parties and…
Content type: Case Study
28th January 2021
Behind their tecchie names, AddThis and ShareThis are simple services: they allow web-developers and less tech-savvy users to integrate social networking "share" buttons on their site. While they might also offer some additional services such as analytics, these tools gained traction mostly by providing an easy and free way to integrate Facebook, Twitter and other social networks share buttons. Anyone can use any of these service and in a few clicks be provided with a plugin for their site or a…
Content type: Long Read
28th January 2021
Now more than ever with a global pandemic happening, our lives are being shaped by our interaction with the digital world. Work meetings on Zoom followed by Skype with family before a quick run with your favourite running app and a Google search for your next meal: technologies and services offer us a lot and greatly improve our daily lives. But what's the real cost of these tools we rely on so much?
A lot of these companies, especially those offering free services, collect data about you. It…
Content type: Long Read
19th January 2021
Political parties depend on data to drive their campaigns, from deciding where to hold rallies, which campaign messages to focus on in which area, and how to target supporters, undecided voters and non-supporters, including with ads on social media. Political parties increasingly hire private companies to do the bulk of this work, and our primary concern is how these companies use personal data to “profile” people and drive election campaigning.
As part of PI’s programme of work on Defending…
Content type: News & Analysis
17th December 2020
Today, the European Commission has concluded its Phase II in-depth review of the proposed acquisition of the health and fitness tracker Fitbit by Google, deciding that the merger can go through. While we welcome the commitments put forward by Google to mitigate some risks of compromising individuals' rights and competition, PI considers the effects of this merger will further strengthen Google's capacity to exploit our data.
On 15 June 2020, Google formally notified the European Commission of…
Content type: Examples
11th December 2020
Civil society organisations Civil Liberties union for Europe, Open Rights Group and Panoptykon Foundation have filed complaints against Google and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) member companies in Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Romania.
The complaints address privacy abuses arising from real-time bidding processing, and call on data protection authorities to work together in investigation the real-time bidding industry.