Just in time for #CyberMonday holiday shopping, today we are launching a new paper taking a deep dive into the technical methods and business practices that drive corporate surveillance. #BehindTheOneWayMirror eff.org/wp/behind-the-…
What information do trackers use to figure out who you are? How do advertisers track your activity across multiple devices? How does your data end up in the hands of data brokers you’ve never heard of? Our new paper covers these questions and more.
And it’s not just advertisers and data brokers. Business, concert organizers, airlines, political campaigns, and others have adopted tracking techniques as well, with unsettling consequences for regular people.
The data that corporate trackers collect represent a disproportionate invasion of privacy, and the decisions they make based on that data can cause concrete harm. Data can be used for annoying ads leave users vulnerable to data breaches, and be shared with law enforcement.
But when we shed light on the tangled network of trackers behind the glass, these systems of corporate surveillance are exposed for what they are: Orwellian, but not omniscient; entrenched, but not inevitable.
For journalists, policy makers, and concerned consumers, we hope this paper will demystify the fundamentals of third-party tracking, explain the scope of the problem, and suggest ways to resist the status quo. Once we understand, we can fight back.
