Data company sold visitor location data for 600 abortion clinics to pro-life group, senator says (therecord.media)
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 04:00
https://lemmy.world/post/11973136

Data company sold visitor location data for 600 abortion clinics to pro-life group, senator says::undefined

#technology

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Reygle@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 04:43 next collapse

I’m not even surprised any more. I take a bold guess at what absolutely hideous shit I’ll read today and I’m still always surprised.

doesnt_use_lemmy@lemmings.world on 15 Feb 2024 04:45 next collapse

Holy crap that’s dark. Now I have even less sympathy for the companies losing revenue from chrome removing third party cookies

Copernican@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 05:13 collapse

You don’t need cookies for this kind of targeting…

PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 06:33 collapse

How do they get the ads to appear on the social media pages of these very specific people? Logistically I’m not sure how that works.

plz1@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 07:16 collapse

You think the forced birthers are buying this data to show ads? Oh sweet child…

PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 08:14 collapse

I mean…it is mentioned several times in the article. Do I think that’s all they’re doing? No. But I am curious how they do this one specific thing that the article mentions repeatedly.

A pro-life political organization obtained mobile phone location data from a broker and used it to target people who had visited 600 abortion clinics across the country with advertisements, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced Tuesday.

The senator began investigating the company last year, in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report revealing that the pro-life Veritas Society had used cell phone location data Near shared with online advertisers to target people visiting Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics with misinformation about reproductive health.

On a webpage that has since been removed, Veritas Society revealed that in Wisconsin alone in 2020 it sent 14.3 million ads to people who visited abortion clinics across the state, Wyden said. The page said the organization “served ads to those devices across the women’s social pages, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat,” he said.

ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works on 16 Feb 2024 07:13 collapse

Why are you using a bot account?

[deleted] on 16 Feb 2024 14:44 next collapse

.

PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works on 16 Feb 2024 14:49 collapse

lol thanks for pointing that out, I don’t recall ever turning it on. Hopefully it’s fixed now?

GroupNebula563@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 05:00 next collapse

thanks for reminding me why I use an ad blocker (and why I hate pro-life fuckers)

plz1@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 07:17 collapse

Your ad blocker doesn’t block location data if your mobile carrier is selling it to these brokers (and they almost certainly are).

Serinus@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 09:50 collapse

It’s why there’s been such an effort to move to apps instead of webpages that can do the same thing. More data collection and notifications.

plz1@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 23:15 collapse

That’s been the trend for more than a decade though. Some companies are more militant about it than others.

jabathekek@sopuli.xyz on 16 Feb 2024 00:53 collapse

Kind of like the other site.

plz1@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 02:59 collapse

Yeah, didn’t want to name it, lol.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 06:52 next collapse

This could be seen as a life-endangering move, and the data company should be held reliable, not just for this act, but also for any problems their victims have to endure.

dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Feb 2024 15:09 collapse

They sold the data fully understanding what it could be used for. I imagine the deal brokered was by a MAGA supporter who works with this data company.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 18:24 collapse

People like that belong behind bars. They are a danger to humans.

_cnt0@sh.itjust.works on 15 Feb 2024 09:19 next collapse

Senator says::undefined

OMG! He’s a broken javascript. AI has gone too far!

Quexotic@infosec.pub on 15 Feb 2024 10:19 next collapse

Now, people needing an abortion also need a burner paid for winth cash. Fantastic.

This is exactly why we need privacy laws.

____@infosec.pub on 15 Feb 2024 23:57 next collapse

I’m male, and my voice is pretty unmistakeable so I can’t very well man the hotlines for agencies helping women find ways to get out of shitty states and have abortions.

I’d happily run all over the tri-state acquiring burners by the bunch though, for this exact use case.

Quexotic@infosec.pub on 17 Feb 2024 00:15 collapse

Sounds like a plan. I’ll remember this. Thanks.

dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Feb 2024 15:08 collapse

And a fake name, and fake everything else as well.

Quexotic@infosec.pub on 17 Feb 2024 00:18 collapse

Totally. It’s grim.

Mango@lemmy.world on 15 Feb 2024 10:58 next collapse

Surely they’re just interested in advertising products popular with newly aborting mothers. /S

Railing5132@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 00:15 next collapse

Veritas

There’s a fucking surprise. Pond scum.

badbytes@lemmy.world on 16 Feb 2024 01:17 next collapse

Seems lawsuits are how we motivate policy. Gotta sue companies into the ground, for policy or law change.

pineapplelover@lemm.ee on 16 Feb 2024 08:37 next collapse

This shit happened in 2022 too. Nothing has changed. There needs to be more outcry.

vice.com/…/location-data-abortion-clinics-safegra…

dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Feb 2024 15:08 collapse

Not only that, but hackers stole every single last bit of patient data from hospitals all over Ontario in Canada as well. I daresay, if you’ve had an abortion, you exist on some right wing assholes list somewhere.