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Content type: Long Read
IntroductionIn early October this year, Google announced its AI Overviews would now have ads. AI companies have been exploring ways to monetise their AI tools to compensate for their eye watering costs, and advertising seems to be a part of many of these plans. Microsoft have even rolled out an entire Advertising API for its AI chat tools.As AI becomes a focal point of consumer tech, the next host of the AdTech expansion regime could well be the most popular of these AI tools: AI chatbots.…
Content type: News & Analysis
Is the AI hype fading? Consumer products with AI assistant are disappointing across the board, Tech CEOs are struggling to give examples of use cases to justify spending billions into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and models training. Meanwhile, data protection concerns are still a far cry from having been addressed.
Yet, the believers remain. OpenAI's presentation of ChatGPT was reminiscent of the movie Her (with Scarlett Johannsen's voice even being replicated a la the movie), Google…
Content type: Long Read
Why does this decision matter?
Our complaint against Criteo formed part of a larger set of coordinated complaints we filed in 2018 against 7 data brokers (Acxiom, Oracle), AdTech companies (Criteo, Quantcast, Tapad), and credit referencing agencies (Equifax, Experian) with data protection authorities in France (CNIL), Ireland, (DPC) and the UK (ICO). The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had recently come into force, and the AdTech industry was (and still is) a prime affront to the…
Content type: Guide step
Opt out of targeted ads
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy. To opt out of targeted ads on Windows, open the Start menu, go to Settings > Privacy > General, and disable all options (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
Cómo desactivar los anuncios personalizados
Ya hemos escrito antes sobre los riesgos que suponen los anuncios personalizados para tu privacidad digital. Para cancelar los anuncios personalizados en Windows, abre el menú Inicio, ve a Configuración > Privacidad > General y desactiva todas las opciones (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
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, y 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…
Content type: Guide step
Ad Blockers aim to prevent your browser from connecting to Ad servers and loading ads on webpages you are visiting. They can also block some parts of webpages that likely display ads. Blocking ads and connections to ad servers can help minimise the amount of data that the Adtech industry collects about you for targeted advertising.
Warning: Using an ad-blocker may cause some pages to display incorrectly or not at all. This guide also shows how you can modify the Ad Blocker's behaviour to allow…
Content type: Guide step
Para acceder a las configuraciones, haz clic en el menú de tres puntos de la parte superior derecha y pulsa Configuración > Privacidad, búsqueda y servicios (Fig. 1), o escribe edge://settings/privacy en la barra de direcciones URL y haz clic en intro.
Content type: Guide step
To access the settings, click on the three-dot menu on the upper right and then press Settings > Privacy, search, and services (Fig. 1), or type edge://settings/privacy in the URL bar and press Enter.
Content type: Guide step
Privacy Badger es una extensión para el navegador que bloquea los anuncios y los rastreadores para evitar que las empresas rastreen tus actividades en línea. Esta extensión lleva una lista actualizada de los rastreadores que detecta mediante pruebas automatizadas (que se hacen a 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 nuevos servidores de anuncios (por ejemplo, si una nueva…
Content type: Guide step
Online trackers are small bits of code embedded directly into a website's main code which collect data points about you and your browsing activity. This may include the pages you visit, how long you spend on them, where you scroll and the links you click on. On top of the online advertising industry, there are other actors that can potentially make use of trackers to track your online activity, including governments and/or law enforcement agencies.
There are extensions you can add to your…
Content type: Guide step
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, cookies are also often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated addon, you can clean your cookies regularily to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficiency of online trackers.
This guide takes you through the steps to install Cookie…
Content type: Guide step
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: News & Analysis
Banning TikTok? It's time to fix the out-of-control data exploitation industry - not a symptom of it
Chinese apps and tech companies have been at the forefront of the news recently. Following India's ban of 59 chinese apps in July, President Trump announced his desire to ban TikTok, shortly followed by his backing of Microsoft's intention to buy the US branch of its parent company ByteDance. Other than others lip syncing his public declaration, what does President Trump fear from this app, run by a firm, based in China?
It's all about that data
One clear answer emerges: the exploitation of…
Content type: Long Read
Photo by Cade Roberts on Unsplash
For those of you who don't spend the most productive part of your day scanning the news for developments about data and competition, here's what has been going on in the UK since summer 2019.
Basically, the UK competition authority started an investigation into online platforms and digital advertising last summer, and issued their preliminary findings in December 2019, concluding that Facebook and Google are very powerful in the search engine and social media…
Content type: News & Analysis
We found this image here.
Today, a panel of competition experts, headed by Professor Jason Furman, the former chief economic adviser of in the Obama administration, confirmed that tech giants, like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft, do not face enough competition.
Significantly, the report finds that control over personal data by tech giants is one of the main causes preventing competition and ultimately innovation.
Privacy International's research has shown clear examples of…