The team behind the Brave-browser has filed a complaint about Google with the authorities in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The company would have violated the new privacy rules in force since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Other ad tech companies are said to have violated the rules as well.
The Brave team, represented by Chief Policy Officer Johnny Ryan, claims that Google, as well as other companies, exposes user information during a process called a bid request in the advertising world. This takes place when a user visits a website with a special type of advertisements – behavioral ads – from Google or another advertiser.
Mass data collection
Brave states that the code for the place where advertisements appear collects large amounts of user data. This information is then forwarded to the advertising platform, where potential buyers of the advertising space can offer to display an advertisement to the specific user. The latter is a process called real-time prayer.
Because information is collected during the bid request, without the explicit consent of a user, Brave claims that there is unlawful access. Data exposed via the bid request includes what a user is currently reading or viewing, information about the location, the IP address, information about the device and various tracking guides.
Personal details
According to Ryan, this information may also include sexuality, ethnicity, political opinions and other personal details. The fact that users cannot control who sees their data, even if it is rendered anonymous, constitutes a breach of the GDPR guidelines.
As far as Ryan and Brave are concerned, an official investigation should now follow. There is a massive and systematic data breach at the heart of the behavioral advertising industry, according to Ryan. Despite the two years of GDPR’s introduction, ad hoc companies have not been able to comply with it.
Google states in a reaction that it does comply with GDPR and that it is transparent to its users, who can also choose for themselves what will be done with their data.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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