Facebook scandal: Who sells your personal data? :: Kenya

Offering practical tips on parenting and worth 26,644 vouchers, the Emma Diary may have seemed to be the perfect website for new parents.

ALSO READ:

Ugandan social media tax to consider

But in exchange for free layers, they also gave their consent for their data to be used for advertising purposes.

It now appeared that the data had been sold to the British Labor Party in 2017, even though the consent did not extend to political parties.

The site is now liable to a fine for misuse of personal data.

The case is part of the Commissioner's investigation into the information on digital political marketing, following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

Avoid false news! Subscribe to the standard SMS service and receive factual news and verified in real time. Text the word "NEWS" to 22840

What started with a review of Facebook's misuse of data opened up a window into the complex ecosystem of online advertising and shed light on the opaque world of data brokerage.

What's a Data Broker?

The data has been described as the "new oil" and data brokers play a big role in extracting the value of our personal information in all its forms.

They collect it from hundreds of sources, including census information, surveys, public registries and loyalty card programs.

ALSO READ:

Tear gas at social media protest in Uganda

They then sell this information to other organizations.

A researcher, writing about the role of data brokers in 2014, described the entire industry as "largely invisible".

This is an industry that has not yet been regulated, although the introduction of the General Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR) in the EU further forces "data controllers" to make users understand how their information is being used.

Who are the big players?

Acxiom and Experian are probably the best known data brokers – and they make a lot of money.

During the 2018 fiscal year, Acxiom is expected to reach $ 95 million (£ 71 million) and was recently purchased by the IPG media advertising giant.

But there are thousands of small players in the industry, alongside applications and websites that register users for a purpose, asking for consent to use their data, which are then sold to advertisers.

10 Ways to Grow Your Clientele

As part of its investigation, the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) investigated Experian, Lifecyle Marketing (the owners of Emma's Diary) , CACI and Data8.

How are they involved in the Facebook scandal?

The digital campaign is now extremely important for political parties. This involves diving into often complex relationships with data brokers and data badysis companies.

In the case of Facebook, there were three data broker partnerships – with Acxiom, Experian and Oracle Data Cloud. It also allowed political parties to target an audience by gender, location, interests and behaviors and offered what he called the category of partner service, allowing advertisers to tap into the information compiled by brokers from data.

These data allowed the political parties to refine their targeting, based on information such as the fact that a person owned his own home, that she was looking to buy a new car or that she was a loyal customer of a particular brand.

For example, an advertiser wishing to target new mothers could use information gleaned from data brokers about those who have recently purchased baby products using a store reward card.

Facebook has now declared that it would end this practice, which had been one of the main marketing methods used to link users' Facebook data on their friends and their lifestyle with their data out. line on their families, finances and health.

What next?

Privacy International described the scope and magnitude of the ICO's investigation as a "reflection exercise"

ALSO READ:

Angry Ukrainian supporters criticize FIFA for punishing the Croatian badistant coach

"This shows that the exploitation of data is endemic and systemic, which goes well beyond Facebook or anybody else." a single ruthless enterprise. "

All of the industry is now feeling decidedly nervous, said Paul Wright, general manager of the Iotec digital advertising platform.

"I think it was fair to say that the digital marketing industry has received a wake-up call with the introduction of GDPR, and this ICO survey will remind people that we have a regulator who has teeth, which will worry some bad players in the industry. "

Gareth Oldale, a law firm partner Sharpe Pritchard, thinks that the ICO investigation will force websites such as Emma's Diary to rewrite their privacy policies.

"The view of the OIC is that it's not enough to sign up for a website and consent to your data being used, if it's not there. Is never made clear that they can be shared with political parties.

"It will no longer be acceptable for people to register on a website for a particular purpose and then reuse data for a completely different purpose," he told the BBC.