Many people know that advertisements are adapted to their surfing behavior and interests, but exactly how that happens is a mystery to most.
That is not surprising, because research shows that the back of the advertising market is more complicated than previously thought. ”All kinds of companies are watching in the background while you surf and there are many more than a few years ago,” says Robbert van Eijk, who mentions this subject at Leiden University.
The technique used in the background is called real-time bidding. This means that when you visit a website, open an app or start a video, it is quickly determined in the background at what price the advertising space can be sold. It also plays a role in which target group you fall under. “Advertisers want to know: am I showing the ad to the right person and at the right time?” says van Eijk.
In order to determine this, your interests must be determined, for example based on your location, but also based on the pages you visit. Of the companies that do this, Facebook and Google are the best known, but we know that AppNexus and Rubicon also play a big role in this market. Van Eijk’s research shows that in practice thousands of companies are engaged in real-time bidding.
Van Eijk works in daily life at the Dutch Data Protection Authority and discovered that there are many specialized companies that operate in a small part of the advertising market. “All those parties have contracts with each other and larger platforms to exchange data,” says Van Eijk. As a result, your surfing behavior ends up unnoticed by all kinds of other companies.
Ultimately, the question is whether all this is allowed under privacy legislation. “It becomes very difficult to exercise your privacy rights.” Under this legislation, for example, you have the right to request information about your file from the company that processes that information. But that is difficult if it is not known with whom that information is stored.
Whoever thinks of advertisements may also think of cookies. But that’s not the only way websites can track you. They can also create a digital fingerprint of your computer’s properties. The ways your computer works and how your web browser is set up make your browser unique. This allows you to be recognized even if you delete the cookies.
According to Van Eijk, it is now time for a follow-up study. For example, better browser plug-ins could be made to block unwanted ad networks. What can you as a consumer do? You can’t completely prevent it, but websites must respect it if you choose not to accept cookies. This does not happen in all cases, so you can also install a browser plug-in, such as Privacy Badger, which protects you from unsolicited advertisements. There are also plugins that completely block ads.
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