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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
, 7 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Microsoft often calls for strong privacy legislation.

2 days ago, Microsoft's LinkedIn announced the acquisition of Drawbridge, a company most people never heard of. Drawbridge helps other companies spy on 1bn consumers + 3bn devices across everyday life: go.drawbridge.com/Demo-Request-I…
In 2018, Drawbridge announced to shut down its EU business. It's obvious why. This cannot be legal under the GDPR:

'Sign up', search 'for any new cookies or device IDs, and immediately receive associated cross-device IDs and device attributes'.
go.drawbridge.com/RichQuery-API_…
Industry folks told me that their data+tech isn't very reliable (which doesn't make it better), and even the trade press is wondering why does MS/LinkedIn want to acquire this cross-device tracking company?
adexchanger.com/data-exchanges…
adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-ne…
marketingland.com/linkedin-looks…
Some believe the acquisition might be just about Drawbridge's talent. LinkedIn itself says it wants to improve how other businesses can link 'their' data with LinkedIn data (similar to FB's custom audiences) and monitor how people act ('attribution'), according to Marketing Land.
Others believe it might be about more, from integrating it with Microsoft's remaining ad business (Bing) to enhancing its CRM services & provide 'identity resolution' similar to how LiveRamp does.

Which brings me to the fact that this is still not clear:
Not least, Drawbridge stated to exit its EU business in 2018 but joined IAB Europe's 'vendor list' in 2019, and is still listed:
vendorlist.consensu.org/vendorlist.json

That means millions of people in the EU are formally 'consenting' to data processing by Drawbridge when they visit websites.
And despite Drawbridge allegedly exited the EU, I watched them receiving personal data during website visits twice:

In Dec 2018, they received some UIDs via cookie data and GET parameters:


In April 2019, they received GET data:
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
This is potentially huge. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a statement relevant to GDPR enforcement that could effectively outlaw much of how political targeting based on extensive profiling (e.g. on FB) is being done today in the EU: edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools…
It's still vague, yes. But it says 'profiling connected to targeted campaign messaging ... shall in principle only be lawful with the valid explicit consent of the data subject'. Is there any FB targeting without 'profiling'? Can others get consent on behalf of political parties?
Apart from the problem that the ultimate response to problematic data practices always seems to be 'consent', in which cases can political parties get consent for profiling/targeting at a practical level? Party members, door-to-door canvassing, supporter/newsletter registrations?
Read 12 tweets
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
Unbelievable. In June, T-Mobile's CEO tweeted that they "will not sell customer location data to shady middlemen" anymore.

Now they sold access to a data broker, which sold it to another one, which sold it to some person, which sold it to another person, which sold it to Cox.
1) Both giant corps and tiny data firms just don't give a f*ck

2) In the EU, this would/should be a 4%-turnover-case, for ALL involved parties

3) It's not just the bounty hunter accessing it, it's a systemic issue

4) 'Fraud prevention', the evil twin of marketing surveillance
"We pull from GPS, Wi-Fi, and triangulation sources"

Here's another location data broker. According to its website, this company has 1 billion "unique mobile IDs" and claims to buy location data from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, Telefonica, Vodafone… complementics.com/wp-content/upl…
Read 5 tweets
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Wolfie Christl
@WolfieChristl
@samfbiddle And now as Facebook removed the "white genocide" category, advertisers could e.g. buy access to 3 million people interested in Alex Jones:
@samfbiddle Another option? Advertisers could target people who are interested in the 'new world order':
@samfbiddle Or what about targeting people on Facebook who believe in 'chemtrails' and sell them stuff, anxieties or other kinds of outrage?
Read 6 tweets

Related threads

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Mark Scott
@markscott82
Europe now has arguably the world’s toughest #privacy rules. But a year in, Big Tech has been the major winner — and lobbying worldwide has framed Europe’s rules are overly cumbersome politi.co/2HugJs5 w/ @laurenscerulus & @StevenOverly

<<cue Twitter rant>>
So let’s start w/ the good news. One year in, 150k privacy complaints have been made under Europe’s #privacy rules, a marked increase vs previous years. But (and it’s a big but) very few companies have been fined, most notably @google in France w/ its €50m penalty
That doesn’t mean fines = success. It’s fair to say that companies now take data protection more seriously, and that national EU regulators *are* building cases against potential abuse.
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Georgetown Privacy
@GeorgetownCPT
HAPPENING NOW: House Committee on Energy and Commerce (@EnergyCommerce) is holding a hearing on “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Big Data.” Watch here:
energycommerce.house.gov/committee-acti…
.@BrandingBrandi of @colorofchange, testifying to the committee, connects privacy rights to broader civil rights. Threats to privacy disproportionately impact people of color, low-income communities, and other marginalized people.
Personal data, even if it feels innocuous, can become a proxy for protected class or sensitive information. This can be used to discriminate in employment, health, advertising, and marketing practices. #privacy
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Yossi Gestetner
@YossiGestetner
CNN’s new poll again has a sample of 25% GOP; 32 Dems; 43 Independents. This is not reflective of the Nov electorate which is why CNN’s Generic Ballot overstated Dems strenth by 5 points. Anyway, Trump’s favorables is 42%; same as Pelosi’s.

Among Indies, Trump 43%; Pelosi 36%
On immigrarion, Trump is down 53-41 among all polled in CNN this weekend; down on this issue 50-44 among Independents.

Indies are split 35-35 if changes Trump made to the country are for the better or worse.

39% of all polled support another shutdown if no wall. 57% oppose.
In the CNN poll (sample of 25% GOP; 32% Dems) in the field days ago, 27% have a favorable opinion of @AOC; 32% Unfavroable; 31% say they never heard of her.

AOC Favorables is 49% among Dems; 23% among independents.

Her overall 27% trails @senatemajldr’s 30%; Trump/Pelosi’s 42%
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ʜᴇɴᴋ ᴠᴀɴ ᴇss
@henkvaness
LINKEDIN SEARCH
The next tweets, inspired by great work of @braingain, will explain you how to search way better in #LinkedIn with brand new, special operators. (1/6)
Say you want to find people who are experienced and worked at companies for years. Embrace." Years of Experience "
With (YOE) (years)
you can enter how many years somebody has to have worked, as shown below: (2/6)
Say you want only to find young people who just started working. Here is how to do that (3/6)
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❌45,468 SEALED ⚖️🗝️
@Avery1776
Microsoft must think we do not know that they are #Skolkovo Partners #RussiaRussiaRussia 😂
#Skolkovo #Microsoft Knee Deep in #RussiaRussiaRussia (real collusion) @BenKTallmadge @BasedBasterd @HousatonicITS @909946zill @CarrollQuigley1
Exhibit 1
bbc.com/news/technolog…
Exhibit 2 MOU better Skolkovo and Microsoft
news.microsoft.com/2010/11/01/sko…
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Trending hashtags

#niche #GPEX #personal #family #2nd #horrible #thesis #deserve #governing #Parque #candidate #firstdegree #WeAreStrongerTogether #Skolkovo #DepressionIsReal #science #challenging #autism #THANKYOU45 #stories #married #LearnOurComms #goodexperience #feminists #tech
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