Australian defense personnel data up for auction via real-time bidding advertising platforms
Australians’ live location data (and more) is shared almost 450 times a day across a range of digital advertising markets.
A new report from digital advocacy group Reset.Tech Australia has revealed the alarming extent of Australian data being shared without consent via real-time bidding (RTB) auctions to place ads in front of users on the go.
According to the Any accepted buyer According to the report, the real-time bidding system shares the location of an Australian citizen an average of 449 times a day.
And it’s not just about location data. Real-time bidding auctions (a form of advertising process by which an advertisement can be targeted to a particular user in real time, and advertisers can bid for their ad to be placed based on information known about that user) can share movement data, financial interests, sexual preferences, drinking habits and much more.
This isn’t just ordinary Australians, but potentially all Australians who visit a website that hosts ads, and that includes data from defense personnel and political leaders, which could create a national security risk, according to Reset .Tech Australia.
But for ordinary Australians, spreading so much personal information is a personal risk, which could lead to being targeted for scams and identity theft.
“The nature of the RTB process is a dirty little secret that has gone unnoticed by the public for too long,” Alice Dawkins, CEO of Reset. Tech Australia said in a statement.
The Reset.Tech Australia report is based on data published by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) in a report titled Australia’s hidden security crisis.
“We hope that with this report, which builds heavily on the ICCL’s strong track record on this issue, we can encourage public debate about this pernicious market that none of us signed up to,” Reset.Tech Australia said.
John Pane, president of Electronic Frontiers Australia, said the RTB system “goes beyond personal safeguards”.
“The data trail we leave extends to our friends, family and all the websites we visit. “This creates a web of vulnerability that is impossible to manage alone,” Pane said.
“To solve this problem, we need systemic reform, not individual policing.”
One of the most alarming things is that not even the advertising industry can control the flow of personal data. There is simply “no technical way to limit how data is used” once it has been published, according to industry documentation.
Chandni Gupta, deputy chief executive of the Center for Consumer Policy Research, said: “Australians deserve privacy protections that focus on people, not profits.”
“It is time for the federal government to modernize what it means to be identifiable to cover data points obtained from any source and by any means. “You must hold businesses to account by imposing clear obligations on the collection, sharing and use of consumer data that lead to fair and safe outcomes for Australians.”
You can read the full report here.
