Spying with advertising data: how does it work?

How does personal information get into the hands of spies?

It all starts with real-time ad auctions. When you open a website or app, your location and behavior data is sent to various companies to decide which advertisement to display. Data brokers collect this exposed information and resell it in bulk to intelligence agencies. This sector is called Adint (advertising intelligence) and transforms commercial tracking into a state espionage tool.

What can agencies find out about people’s lives?

Although the data appears anonymous because it uses numeric codes, it is possible to identify the owners of the devices by crossing them with other records. With your location history accumulated over months, agents can find out where you live, work, which churches you attend, your political preferences and even who you hang out with. When combined with artificial intelligence, this analysis becomes automatic and on a gigantic scale.

Why do governments buy this data instead of asking the courts?

The strategy serves to circumvent the need for a court order. In the traditional model, the police need to prove a crime to a judge to track a cell phone via operator. In the private market, however, the data is considered ‘commercially available’. As the government is only purchasing a product on the specialized market, the practice falls into a gray area of ​​the law, which allows mass surveillance without oversight by the Judiciary.

What is the role of artificial intelligence in this monitoring?

Artificial intelligence is the engine that powers this surveillance. In the past, it would have been humanly impossible to analyze billions of records from millions of people. Now, algorithms can filter these databases instantly to find patterns of behavior and point out likely movements and relationships between individuals. Companies like Anthropic have already warned that this technology allows you to create a detailed portrait of any citizen’s life.

Are there legal attempts to stop this practice?

In the United States Congress, lawmakers from different parties have attempted to restrict these purchases through reforms to surveillance laws such as FISA. However, there was resistance from the White House and House leadership, on the grounds that intelligence is valuable to national security. In Europe, the situation is similar: regulation is scarce or non-existent, and agencies even use shell companies to hide their interest in these acquisitions.