Advertising Surveillance Enables Government Surveillance

/e/OS Foundation & Community Data Privacy
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A few choice quotes:

The technical systems powering creepy targeted ads also allow federal agencies to track your location.

… a document recently obtained by 404 Media is the first time CBP has acknowledged the location data it buys is partially sourced from the system powering nearly every ad you see online: real-time bidding (RTB).

… two sources of location data that it relies on: software development kits (SDKs) and RTB…

But once an app has access to your location, it could share it with data brokers directly through SDKs or indirectly (and often without the app developers’ knowledge) through RTB. Data brokers can collect location data from SDKs that they pay developers to put in their apps. When relying on RTB, data brokers don’t need any direct relationship with the apps and websites they’re collecting location data from. RTB is facilitated by ad companies that are already plugged into most websites and apps.

A key vulnerability of real-time bidding is that while only one advertiser wins the auction, all participants receive data about the person who would see their ad. As a result, anyone posing as an ad buyer can access a stream of sensitive data about billions of individuals a day.

RTB auctions broadcast the average person’s data to thousands of companies, hundreds of times per day, with no oversight of how this information is ultimately exploited. Once your information is broadcast through RTB, it’s almost impossible to know who receives it or control how it’s used.
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A few of my personal recommendations:

    1. Use privacy-respecting operating systems.
    1. Avoid commercial apps (and app stores) that embed spyware and analytics.
    1. Use tracker blockers.
    1. Use privacy-respecting browsers and privacy-respecting search engines. Enable “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” in browser settings. Disable telemetry.
    1. Install privacy extensions such as NoScript, uBlockOrigin, and/or Privacy Badger.
    1. Remove tracker identifiers from links before sharing.
    1. Don’t provide data on yourself to social media companies.
    1. Install Pi-hole on your home network to block data gathering from other connected devices, e.g. media streaming boxes, televisions, etc.
    1. Subscribe to a privacy-respecting VPN service.
    1. Subscribe to a privacy-respecting email service.
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