Tech Giants behind the Biggest Data Breach in the World

It is absolutely true that getting obsessed into a more technology driven world would lead towards destruction. However, the technology companies say digital life is likely to improve the lives of people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder over the next few decades. Various reports on the digital divide are inviting more serious problems.

Most tech companies make apps and digital tools for people who can easily utilize internet and digital devices. This creates an illusion of ubiquitous internet, but the infrastructure will tend to be made for only people who understand English. This could create huge social problems. Google is the biggest real-time-bidding (RTB) company in this universe.

It clearly reflects from the recent report that Google-Led Internet Giants are Behind the ‘Biggest Data Breach Ever Recorded’. On average, a person in the US has their online activity and location exposed 747 times every day by the RTB industry. In Europe, RTB exposes people's data 376 times a day. The report reveals, Google allows 4,698 companies to receive RTB data about people in the US, while Microsoft may send data to 1,647 companies.

Now you can name the mother of all data security breaches as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) revealed that Google and other internet giants are processing and passing people’s data billions of times per day via real-time-bidding (RTB) system for tracking and ad targeting.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) operates behind the scenes on websites and apps. It tracks what you are looking at, no matter how private or sensitive, and it records where you go. Every day, it broadcasts this data about you to a host of companies continuously, enabling them to profile you.

“RTB is the biggest data breach ever recorded. It tracks and shares what people view online and their real-world location 294 billion times in the US and 197 billion times in Europe every day,” the Irish watchdog said in its report. Europeans and US Internet users’ private data is then sent to firms across the globe, including to Russia and China, without any means of controlling what is then done with the data. “The RTB industry generated $117+ billion in the US and Europe in 2021,” said the ICCL.

It further reveals that US Internet users’ data racked and shared 107 trillion times a year. Still, the report said that the figures presented for RTB broadcasts were a low estimate. “The industry figures on which we rely do not include Facebook or Amazon RTB broadcasts,” it added.

The major concern is that ad tracking could expose personal data that can be used to identify women and people who are pregnant and/or seeking abortion services. “Most advertising on websites and apps is placed using RTB. Advertisers spend $100 billion per year on RTB in the US and Europe,” said the report. Google and Microsoft were yet to react to the ICCL report.