How Apps on Android Share Data with Facebook
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of users.
Many third-parties also perform cross-device tracking
, the practice of linking multiple devices,
such as smartphones, television sets, smart TVs, and personal computers, to a single user. The more
granular a user profile, the more intimate inferences can be derived about people’s likely attributes,
identities, habits and opinions.
It is in this context that the prevalence of big tech companies in the tracking ecosystem raises concerns.
Any company receives data from a considerable percentage of all apps, would be able to gain a
particularly deep insight into the everyday behavior and interests of mobile phone users.
Why third-party tracking on apps raises unique privacy challenges
Privacy International has recently asked regulators to investigate a number of data broker and advertising
technology companies (“AdTech”) that constitute a complex back-end system that is used to direct
advertising to individuals and specific target audiences.
At a generalized level these companies track
individuals around the web and across different apps and help dictate what advertising content they
see.
Despite having trackers throughout the web, many third parties are not household names. Most people
have never heard of them, do not know that they process their data and profile them, whether this data
is accurate, for what purposes they are using it, or with whom it is being shared or what the consequences
are. Quantcast, a company that Privacy International has investigated as part of these complaints, for
instance, claims that it can collect real-time insights on audiences on over 100 million mobile and web
destinations
. A member of Privacy International’s staff has described the picture Quantcast was able to
obtain about her life, from the data gathered through a single cookie placed on one of her browsers
alone.
In our complaints we argued that this exploitation of the personal data of millions of people in
the European Union and further afield constitutes an infringement of data protection law.
Third-party tracking in both mobile apps and on the web raises important human rights concerns, in
particular concerning the right to privacy and data protection. Third party tracking on apps usually
happens in the background, which means that many users are unaware of the fact that third parties are
Achara, J.P., Acs, G. and Castelluccia, C., 2015, October. On the unicity of smartphone applications. In
Proceedings of the 14th ACM Workshop on Privacy in the
Electronic Society
(pp. 27-36). ACM.
Brookman, J., Rouge, P., Alva, A. and Yeung, C., 2017. Cross-device tracking: Measurement and disclosures.
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies
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2017(2), pp.133-148.
Privacy International (2018).
A Snapshot of Corporate Profiling
. Available at: https://privacyinternational.org/feature/1721/snapshot-corporate-profiling
(Accessed: 1 December 2018).
Privacy International (2018).
Our complaints against Acxiom, Criteo, Equifax, Experian, Oracle, Quantcast, Tapad
. Available at:
https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy-briefing/2426/our-complaints-against-acxiom-criteo-equifax-experian-oracle-quantcast-tapad (Accessed: 1 December
2018).
Privacy International (2018).
Submission to the Information Commissioner – Request for an Assessment Notice / Complaint of Adtech Data Brokers.
Available
at: https://privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/2018-
11/08.11.2018%20Final%20Complaint%20AdTech%20Criteo%2C%20Quantcast%20and%20Tapad.pdf (Accessed: 1 December 2018).
https://www.quantcast.com/data-hub/
Privacy International (2018).
I asked an online tracking company for all of my data and here's what I found.
Available at:
https://privacyinternational.org/feature/2433/i-asked-online-tracking-company-all-my-data-and-heres-what-i-found (Accessed: 1 December 2018).