The Selling of user data without first and foremost obtaining their consent is an extremely troubling problem that doesn’t seem like it will be going away anytime soon. According to a recent report published by Compliant, it turns out that 91% of US Publishers are selling user data to third parties without their consent.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these publishers are all using Consent Management Platforms. In spite of the fact that this is the case, they are still finding ways to deliver user data into the hands of those willing to pay for it. The CEO of Compliant went so far as to say that this is a dangerous situation akin to mass surveillance.
The study involved the analysis of a billion or so impressions which were acquired from around a thousand media campaigns. Such a trend is concerning because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up putting user privacy at risk, and most consumers aren’t all that aware of what’s going on.
Based on the findings presented in this report, it appears that each publisher has around 5 brokers buying data from it on average. The high number of vendors also puts these publishers at an increased risk of data theft with all things having been considered and taken into account.
The study found that 82% of publishers are at a higher risk of data theft than might have been the case otherwise, and it’s all due to the enormous quantity of vendors that they are servicing on a more or less regular basis. Unauthorized tags can be piggybacked on, thereby providing malicious actors yet another avenue through which they can harvest data which can then be sold on the dark web.
The report states that the vast majority of the advertising ecosystem simply isn’t complying with regulations laid out in California’s CCPA. This consumer protection act came with several stipulations, including allowing consumers to delete their data whenever they choose and also have the ability to opt out.
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