A New Study Shows How Ad-Based Technology is Used for Surveillance

Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert recently spoke with NPR’s Rob Schmitz on All Things Considered about the Lab’s new investigation of Webloc, a geolocation surveillance system that uses ad-based data to monitor people across the globe.

Deibert explains how the internet ecosystem has been designed around personal data surveillance–collecting information on users that is sold to advertisers. Webloc enables governments to gain access to this information to track individuals. Experts are concerned with the way this technology is being used by agencies such as ICE to “clearly circumvent legal protections that protect citizens.”

While it’s practically impossible to protect yourself from data harvesting if you use a phone or the internet, says Deibert, turning off location sharing information inoculates users “to some degree.”