Wolfie Christl Profile picture
Aug 1, 2019 21 tweets 19 min read Read on X
This is weird.

Aristotle, a major political data company in the US who provided a 'nationwide enriched credit file' to Cambridge Analytica also runs a ID verification firm that utilizes 'identity data' on '3.4 billion citizens across the world', and a UK credit reference agency.
Has this ever been discussed or reported on?

According to NationBuilder, Aristotle provides e.g. data on 'over 190 million U.S. voters from 3,100 counties and political data from 157 nations':
nationbuilder.com/aristotlenews

Aristotle's subsidiary "Integrity":
integrity.aristotle.com/about/
The strange website of this UK credit reference and fraud prevention firm 'Aristotle International Europe Limited' (aristotleint.co.uk) says '(c) 2019 Integrity' and directly links to aristotle.com and integrity.aristotle.com.
Aristotle owned a '35-million-person database for the U.K., which was used by at least one candidate in London’s last mayoral race' already back in the mid-2000s: vanityfair.com/news/2007/12/a…

Btw. Recently, Aristotle has also been working in Kenya @pasternack: fastcompany.com/40450037/trump…
@pasternack And this is what Aristotle provided to Cambridge Analytica: a 'nationwide enriched credit file' with '400 data points for 220m individuals', according to an internal doc leaked by Brittany Kaiser.
@pasternack 1) Firms that collect/analyze/sell extensive personal information about voters shouldn't exist.

2) Data processing for ID verification, fraud prevention and credit reporting must be strictly regulated. Data must not be used for other purposes, especially not for voter profiling.
@pasternack Perhaps Aristotle's businesses are strictly separated and they do not use any personal data across voter profiling and risk analytics.

But I think the fact that they are mentioned as a credit data provider for political campaigning should be enough to start an EU investigation.
@pasternack Even more so if this is (still) true and they run the UK credit reference agency to gain access to the UK electoral register. Thanks @EinsteinsAttic!
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic With regards to their identity verification business they claim to cover all EU countries (and many more):
integrity.aristotle.com/global/
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic According to the privacy policy, they 'have access to databases provided by governments' and others containing personal data such as addresses, phone numbers, 'government-issued identification data, IP addresses, social network data' +sensitive blacklists: integrity.aristotle.com/privacy-policy/
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic They claim to use a 'comprehensive database of government-issued ID’s for citizens of 135 countries around the globe', a 'database covering over 3.4 billion citizens worldwide':
integrity.aristotle.com/solutions

I really hope Aristotle doesn't use *any* of this data for voter profiling.
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic Whoa, I missed this when I scanned that Vanity Fair piece before (vanityfair.com/news/2007/12/a…). According to this article, GOOGLE owned 27 percent (!) of Aristotle in 2007 (and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp 13.5 percent). Who owns Aristotle today?
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic This from Aristotle's website (aristotle.com/data/) seems to show an app that shows detailed personal information to canvassers, including name, age, party, vote history and even info such as '2nd Most Recent Lender Name' and '2nd Most Recent Mortgage Am[ount]'.

…wait what?
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic The only take I've seen by now that covers both Aristotle's ID and voter profiling stuff is this comment to the FTC ...oddly, it's about about an application for a COPPA safe harbor program (which was granted ultimately): ftc.gov/policy/public-…

…again, found by @EinsteinsAttic
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic Another one via @EinsteinsAttic - in 2018, the U.S. Federal Election Commission(FEC) found 'probable cause to believe' that Aristotle 'violated' the 'sale and use restriction' imposed on FEC data.

Don't know the current status of this investigation: fec.gov/files/legal/mu…
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic A project closely linked to Aristotle is Predictit, a political-gambling site aka prediction market. This seems to be illegal in the US (bloomberg.com/news/articles/…), so it claims to be an 'experimental project operated for academic purposes'. What about the data? /thx @MatthiasEberl
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic @MatthiasEberl Is this the backstory of why Aristotle provides both political tech and ID verification? First, software for political campaigns, then: "We were increasingly using the software to verify the identities of people making contributions to political campaigns" telegraph.co.uk/finance/commen…
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic @MatthiasEberl In a SEC filing from 2000, Aristotle stated:

"We collect and compile information in our databases that we use in connection with our campaign products and services and for our targeted advertising products and our age and identity authentication services" nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/f…
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic @MatthiasEberl …this doesn't sound like strict separation.

Also in the year 2000, "VeriSign has struck partnerships with data companies such as Equifax and Trans Union, which provide credit data, and Aristotle International, a provider of voter data" for auth purposes: dmnews.com/customer-exper…
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic @MatthiasEberl In 2000, Aristotle started to license UK voter records from a third party and warned in its SEC filing (nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/f…) that there is the risk that the license could be terminated.

In 2003, they incorporated this UK credit referencing agency:
@pasternack @EinsteinsAttic @MatthiasEberl Correction: I misread this paragraph in the Vanity Fair piece (vanityfair.com/news/2007/12/a…).

It was not Google but WR Hambrecht, which owned 27% of Aristotle in 2007 (+ helped with Google's IPO + invested in other data companies e.g. LexisNexis, Salesforce: crunchbase.com/organization/w…)

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More from @WolfieChristl

Sep 5
I took another look at Snowden docs that mention browser/cookie IDs.

It's breathtaking how the surveillance marketing industry has still managed to claim for many years that unique personal IDs processed in the web browser are somehow 'anonymous', and sometimes still does.
Another 2011 doc indicates that the GCHQ operated a kind of probabilistic ID graph that aims to link cookie/browser IDs, device IDs, email addresses and other 'target detection identifiers' (TDIs) based on communication, timing and geolocation behavior:
Btw. What inspired me to revisit these docs is @ByronTau's book Means of Control, which not only details how US agencies buy commercial data from digital marketing but also provides deep historical context, tracing back to early-2000s debates on Total Information Awareness (TIA).
Read 19 tweets
Jul 16
Die digitale Werbeindustrie verkauft Smartphone-Standortdaten und Bewegungsprofile von Millionen Menschen in Deutschland, darunter Privatpersonen und sensibles Personal.

Große Recherche von und BR, die einen riesigen Datensatz als "Muster" erhalten haben. netzpolitik.org


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Sie haben Menschen identifiziert, die Entzugskliniken, Swinger-Clubs oder Bordelle besucht haben, aber auch Personal von Ministerien, Bundeswehr, BND, Polizei.

Die Recherche auf netzpolitik (7 Artikel):


Visuell aufbereitet vom BR:
netzpolitik.org/tag/databroker…
interaktiv.br.de/ausspioniert-m…
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Fast alle Smartphone-Apps sind heute mit zwielichtigen Datensammeltechnologien "verwanzt".

Völlig unkontrollierte Datenmarktplätze, u.a. die Firma Datarade mit Sitz in Berlin, bieten Standort- und andere Verhaltensdaten über ganze Bevölkerungen aus vielen Ländern zum Verkauf an.
Image
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Read 12 tweets
May 30
So, Microsoft exploits activity data from Outlook, Teams, Word etc across customers for its own promotional purposes, including on meetings, file usage and the seconds until emails are read.

Aggregate analysis but based on massive personal data processing
microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/…

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Microsoft states that the analysis on the seconds until emails were read excludes EU data. Activity data from Outlook, Teams, Word etc, however, seems to include EU data.

What's their legal basis? This is also personal data on employees. And, are business customers fine with it?
Should cloud-based software vendors exploit personal data on users of their services, including private persons and employees of business customers, how they see fit?

I don't think so.

Not even for public-interest research, at least not without academic process and IRB review.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 29
Some more findings from our investigation of LiveRamp's ID graph system (), which maintains identity records about entire populations in many countries, including name, address, email and phone, and aims to link these records with all kinds of digital IDs:crackedlabs.org/en/identity-su…
Identity data might seem boring, but if a company knows all kinds of identifying info about everyone, from home address to email to device IDs, it is in a powerful position to recognize persons and link profile data scattered across many databases, and this is what LiveRamp does.
LiveRamp aims to provide clients with the ability to recognize a person who left some digital trace in one context as the same person who later left some trace elsewhere.

It has built a sophisticated system to do this, no matter how comprehensive it can recognize the person.
Read 12 tweets
Nov 14, 2023
As part of our new report on RTB as a security threat and previously unreported, we reveal 'Patternz', a private mass surveillance system that harvests digital advertising data on behalf of 'national security agencies'.

5 billion user profiles, data from 87 adtech firms. Thread: Image
'Patternz' in the report by @johnnyryan and me published today:


Patternz is operated by a company based in Israel and/or Singapore. I came across it some time ago, received internal docs. Two docs are available online.

Some more details in this thread. iccl.ie/wp-content/upl…
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Here's how Patternz can be used to track and profile individuals, their location history, home address, interests, information about 'people nearby', 'co-workers' and even 'family members', according to information available online:

isasecurity.org/patternz
web.archive.org/web/2021062210…
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Read 30 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
, a 'social risk intelligence platform' that provides digital profiles about named individuals regarding financial strain, food insecurity, housing instability etc for healthcare purposes.

Incredibly intrusive, horrifying that this can exist in the US. sociallydetermined.com
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"It calculates risk scores for each risk domain for each person", according to the promotional video, and offers "clarity and granularity for the entire US".

Not redlining, though. They color it green. Image
Making decisions based on these metrics about individuals and groups seems to be highly questionable and irresponsible bs.

Safegraph, a shady location data firm, is among the data providers:
safegraph.com/customers/soci…
Read 6 tweets

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