Privacy lawsuit launched over claims of massive data breach | WARC | The Feed

Privacy lawsuit launched over claims of massive data breach

IAB Tech Lab, which develops standards for the digital advertising industry, is being sued by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties over what the council describes as “the world’s largest data breach”.

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The case is aimed at members of the IAB, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, and is necessary, the ICCL says, because the Data Protection Commission in Ireland and regulators in other jurisdictions have not followed up on formal complaints made by the ICCL over the last three years. The case has been filed under the EU’s GDPR legislation in Hamburg, where the New York-based IAB Tech Lab has an office.

The details

• Dr Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the ICCL and a former ad industry executive, says people are not aware of the huge scale of personal data that is collected and shared about them as part of programmatic advertising.
• Included in the lawsuit are what are described by the ICCL as “secret dossiers” on individual internet users. The basis for the case is that no-one has consented to this data being collected or shared.
• The organisation says it hopes the case will result in the online ad industry being forced to stop tracking people online. The industry, however, maintains that nothing that could identify individuals is shared.

Key quote

“These secret dossiers about you – based on what you think is private – could prompt an algorithm to remove you from the shortlist for your dream job. A retailer might use the data to single you out for a higher price online. A political group might micro target you with personalised disinformation” – Dr Johnny Ryan, senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

Sourced from Irish Times