… In the United States, and across the world, any protester who brings a phone to a public demonstration is tracked and that person’s presence at the event is duly recorded in commercial datasets. At the same time, political parties are beginning to collect and purchase phone location for voter […] Read more »
Getting rid of microtargeting in political advertising is a terrible idea
Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, unleashed a frenzy of commentary when he went Pontius Pilate and effectively washed his hands of the false advertising problem online by announcing his platform would no longer take political ads. But perhaps the most alarming reaction came from Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen […] Read more »
Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information
A majority of Americans believe their online and offline activities are being tracked and monitored by companies and the government with some regularity. It is such a common condition of modern life that roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults say they do not think it is possible to go through daily life […] Read more »
They Know What You Watched Last Night
A spate of streaming services are on their way from major tech and entertainment companies, promising viewers a trove of binge-worthy new shows and movies. There’s something for advertisers, too: your personal data. Recent deals involving the media conglomerate AT&T, the streaming device seller Roku, the advertising giant Publicis and […] Read more »
Whistleblower Explains How Cambridge Analytica Helped Fuel U.S. ‘Insurgency’
When Christopher Wylie first began working for the British behavioral research company SCL Group, the company used data drawn from a number of sources as a means of potentially altering outcomes for their, sometimes military, clients. But over time, Wylie’s mission — and that of the company — expanded. Conservative […] Read more »
The Privacy Project: Do You Know What You’ve Given Up?
We’ve all been making some big choices, consciously or not, as advancing technology has transformed the real and virtual worlds. That phone in your pocket, the surveillance camera on the corner: You’ve traded away a bit of anonymity, of autonomy, for the usefulness of one, the protection of the other. […] Read more »