The UFC-Que Choisir unveiled a study on Thursday which exposes the worrying practices of collecting and sharing data online. According to the association, a consumer is tracked thousands of times for just a few websites visited.
It is a rather alarming study on the collection and massive sharing of data by Web players that UFC-Que Choisir made public this Thursday, January 25. The consumer association points out the risks of profiling Internet users, exposed to constant monitoring for intrusive advertising purposes. To counter this threat, the entity urges to guarantee real control over personal data. And suffice to say that it is not won.
Online surveillance exposes our private lives for intrusive personalized ads
The results of the tests conducted by UFC-Que Choisir are rather damning. The association’s teams consulted ten sites, those of 20 minutesAllociné, Cdiscount, Leboncoin, The worldMarmiton, Météo France, Orange, Program TV (Télé-Loisirs) and Yahoo.
Just browsing these sites has led to over 4,000 data shares with over 1,000 third parties. The association has accumulated 4,332 occurrences, since certain third parties are present on several of these sites.
These third parties, often unknown to the general public, operate as online advertising providers and data brokers. They leverage time-based bidding (RTB), a now ubiquitous technology, to create detailed advertising profiles, exposing users’ intimate aspects, such as their spending habits, their financial situation or even their mental health. .
Obstacles to data erasure are real
Algorithms carefully use browsing behaviors to create profiled ads that drive impulse purchases, based on vulnerabilities, psychological flaws. This strategy, denounced by the association, promotes the constant overstimulation of consumers, and pushes them to spend more.
84% of consumers today oppose the tracking of their online behavior. But companies, despite this, use practices deemed deceptive to obtain consent, by resorting to dark patterns (the pre-checked boxes, etc.), or by drowning the user with complex general conditions.
And if Internet users have the right to request the erasure of their data, the procedure unfortunately involves the stations of the cross, even if the association offers to help you. How can we solve the problem when more than half of the third parties who hold our data offer no means of contact, or ignore requests? UFC-Que Choisir calls for better transparency on the use of data, to offer consumers real control of their data.
Source : UFC-Que Choisir
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