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CBP Tapped into the Online Advertising Ecosystem to Track Peoples' Movements

4 hours ago
  • #advertising
  • #privacy
  • #surveillance
  • US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using phone location data to track individuals of interest.
  • The data is partly sourced from real-time bidding (RTB) in online advertising, where ads are served based on demographics.
  • Surveillance firms or rogue advertising companies can exploit RTB to collect mobile phone data, including location, without users' knowledge.
  • This tracking process is invisible to ordinary phone users but occurs constantly.
  • LWN's minimal advertising does not use this RTB system.