15 June 2021
ICCL’s lawsuit takes aim at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Verizon, AT&T, and the entire online advertising and tracking industry, by challenging industry rules.
Included in hundreds of pages of evidence is the industry rulebook for building secret dossiers about every person. These dossiers can include your mental health conditions, financial situation, and even whether your child has special needs.
Dr Johnny Ryan, Senior Fellow of ICCL, said
“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.”
ICCL is going to court to challenge the secret dossier system, and the online advertising industry that feeds that system.
The private things we do online are collected from a vast online advertising system that operates behind the scenes on virtually every website and app. This online advertising system, called “Real-Time Bidding” (RTB), is a central target of ICCL’s lawsuit
RTB broadcasts personal data about us to thousands of companies. Though RTB data can contain very sensitive information, industry documents also confirm that there are no technical measures to limit what companies can do with this information, nor who they pass it on to.
This data breach happens hundreds of billions of times a day, according to industry documents cited in ICCL’s evidence.
Defendants include IAB TechLab (IAB stands for Interactive Advertising Bureau), which sets the rules that govern Google and Facebook and the global online advertising industry. Though IAB TechLab is based in New York, ICCL’s case at the Landgerichte Hamburg will hold it accountable under the GDPR.
ICCL’s lawsuit will force the online advertising industry to stop tracking everyone online. ICCL’s action comes after three years of inaction on by GDPR enforcers.
Solicitor Ravi Naik, a Partner at law firm AWO, said
“In September 2018 we brought evidence of the unlawful behaviour of the ad industry to regulators. Owing to regulatory inertia, years later, we have no resolution to that conduct. Instead, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have had to stand up for all of our rights.”
Today, the new “Anti-tracking ads coalition” of the European Parliament will announce efforts to introduce law to stop online ads from tracking people as described in ICCL’s lawsuit.
ENDS/
Contact us for details and to see the evidence we’re using to bring the industry to court.
For comment: Dr Johnny Ryan
For media queries: sinead.nolan@iccl.ie +353 87 4157162
Press resources:
More information at https://iccl.ie/rtb-june-2021/
Broadcast video at https://vimeo.com/showcase/rtb
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has been at the forefront of every major rights advance in Irish society for over 40 years. We helped legalise homosexuality, divorce, and contraception. We drove police reform, defending suspects’ rights during dark times. ICCL is Ireland’s leading human rights organisation, and our work on digital and data issues has global impact.