Irelands data watchdog slammed for letting adtech carry on biggest breach of all time
A dossier of evidence detailing how the online ad targetingindustry profiles Internet users intimate characteristics without their knowledge or consent has been published today by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties , piling more pressure on the countrys data watchdog to take enforcement action over what complainants contend is the biggest data breach of all time.
Under EU data protection law, personal information that relates to highly sensitive and intimate topics such as health, sexuality and politics is whats known as special category personal data. Processing this type of information generally requires explicit consent from users with only very narrow exceptions, such as for protecting the vital interests of the data subjects .
So its hard to see how the current practices of the targeted ad industry can possibly be compliant with EU law, in spite of the massive scale on which Internet users data is being processed.
In the report, the ICCL estimates that just three ad exchanges have made around 113.9 trillion RTB broadcasts in the past year.
Googles RTB system now sends peoples private data to more companies, and from more websites than when the DPC was notified two years ago, it writes. A single ad exchange using the IAB RTB system now sends 120 billion RTB broadcasts in a day, an increase of 140% over two years ago when the DPC was notified.
However in a follow up to Doyles remarks, Ryan told TechCrunch he has no idea what the DPC is referring to when it mentions a full update. On next steps he said the regulator informed him it will produce a document setting out what it believes the issues are within four weeks of its letter, dated September 15.
In its case, after months of regulatory inaction, the ICO announced earlier this year that it had paused its investigation into the industrys processing of Internet users personal data owing to disruption to businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.Original article
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