New research with Lab members demonstrates how targeted advertising can be used for personal surveillance, called ADINT. The Tech Policy Lab plans to work with the ADINT research team to explore the policy implications of this research, examining potential recommendations for issues raised by this new form of personal surveillance.

Project Resources

  • Co-Director Testifies on Digital Market Manipulation at FTC Workshop

    For a long time, companies have been attuned to the idea that environments can be manipulated to change a customer’s behavior and make them more engaged with a product. This ability to manipulate the market has only been facilitated in the online era, with data and online cookies providing companies with a hidden window to […]

    News

  • Exploring ADINT: Using Ad Targeting for Surveillance on a Budget

    In this work, we explore the following question: can third-parties use the purchasing of ads to extract private information about individuals? We find that the answer is yes. We also conduct a broad survey of other ad networks and assess their risks to similar attacks. We then step back and explore the implications of our findings. Published at the 16th ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES 2017).

    Research Paper News