Brave uncovers widespread surveillance of UK citizens by private
companies embedded on UK council websites

by Johnny RyanFeb 4, 2020Brave Insights, Policy, Press, Research

A new report from Brave reveals that people seeking help for
addiction, disability, and poverty on council websites are profiled
by private companies in the UK.

Brave announces Surveillance on UK council websites, a study of
private companies’ data collection on council websites across the
United Kingdom.

Brave has uncovered widespread surveillance of UK citizens by
private companies embedded on UK council websites. “Surveillance
on UK council websites”, a new report from Brave, reveals the
extent of private companies’ surveillance of UK citizens when
they seek help for addiction, disability, and poverty from their
local government authorities.

None of the data collecting companies recorded in this study had
received consent from the website visitor to lawfully process data.
Download Report PDF Quick Facts:

   Nearly all councils in the UK permit at least one company to
   learn about the behaviour of people visiting their websites.
   Tweet this People seeking information about disability,
   poverty, drugs and alcoholism services are profiled by data
   brokers on some council websites. Tweet this 198 council
   websites in the UK use the “real-time bidding” (RTB) form
   of advertising. Real-time bidding is the biggest data breach
   ever recorded in the UK. Though illegality is not in dispute,
   the UK Information Commissioner (ICO) has failed to act. Tweet
   this Google owns all five of the top embedded elements loaded
   by UK council websites, giving it the power to know what
   virtually anyone in the UK views on council sites. Tweet this
   Over of a quarter of the UK population is served by councils
   that embed Twitter, Facebook, and others on their websites,
   leaking data about what sensitive issues people read about to
   these companies. Tweet this 6.9 million people are served by
   councils that allow data broker LiveRamp to track people on
   their sites. Until recently, LiveRamp was part of the Acxiom
   Group, which sold data to Cambridge Analytica. Tweet this None
   of the data collecting companies recorded in this study had
   received consent from the website visitor to lawfully process
   data. Tweet this This report should spur Elizabeth Denham, the
   UK Information Commissioner, to finally enforce the GDPR. It is
   17 months since formal evidence from Brave and complaints about
   breaches of data protection laws were filed before the ICO.
   Tweet this

Use the Data Leaks Explorer tool to check the council in your local
area. Download Report PDF Download press materials Press Assets:
graphics, embeddable assets “Our findings show that councils are
exposing the people of the UK to mass profiling. This is dangerous,
because it leads manipulation and discrimination”, said Dr Johnny
Ryan, Chief Policy Officer of Brave. “This is a problem when an
algorithm decides to not shortlist your application for a job based
on your previous activity on a council’s drugs support page, for
example.”

“Once your interests and online activity is out in the wild
you have no idea how it might be used”, said Dr Ryan. “The
conventional web browsers do not protect against this”. Failure
of ICO enforcement

Real-time bidding is the biggest data breach ever recorded in
the UK. Though illegality is not in dispute, the UK’s privacy
regulator (the ICO) has failed to act.

Brendan Eich, the inventor of JavaScript and CEO of Brave, said
“this report should spur the UK Information Commissioner,
Elizabeth Denham, to finally enforce the law. She should force data
companies to cease the widespread broadcast of personal data”.

“It is now a full 17 months since evidence from Brave and
complaints about breaches of data protection laws were filed before
the ICO”, said Mr Eich. “The time to act is now”.

Timeline of ICO inaction:

   January 2018 The ICO is contacted by Dr Johnny Ryan, then an  .
   industry whistle blower, about the RTB data breach September  .
   2018 Brave initiates a campaign of formal GDPR complaints to  .
   stop the RTB data breach. The ICO receives Brave’s evidence .
   in GDPR complaints from Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group  .
   and Dr Michael Veale June 2019 The ICO announces that RTB     .
   is currently unlawful, and gives the industry six months to   .
   clean up December 2019 The ICO’s six month grace period for .
   the RTB industry ends. No substantive action is proposed by   .
   industry January 2020 The ICO announces it accepts the RTB    .
   industry’s gestures, and will take no immediate action to   .
   stop the continuing RTB data breach                           .

See more at https://brave.com/rtb-updates/. Data Leaks Explorer

How to use this tool Pan around the map and zoom in and out. Reset
your view by clicking this icon that appears as you use the map.
You can embed this tool on any site by clicking the share icon
below the map. About Brave:

Brave is a new, private web browser. It has unmatched speed and
battery life. And it also blocks data-grabbing ads and trackers.

10 million people use Brave to make the web quicker and safer. You
can download it for your phone or computer and browse the web with
confidence.

Brave’s CEO is Brendan Eich, inventor of JavaScript, and
co-founder of Mozilla/Firefox.

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