[projectvrm] Cross Post of interest

[John Wunderlich < >]

Hi;

The following was posted on a privacy list in Canada. Because of the topic (use of advertising identifiers to enable state surveillance) I thought the paper it refers to might be of interest to some on this list as well.

Apologies to those who will receive this multiple times.

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[The authors have written] a paper on cookie-based passive surveillance,
... recently made publicly available. The paper responds to the
following question: to what extent do major online properties encrypt
the advertising, cookie, and other digital identifiers used by the NSA
et al to track users around the globe? This seems particularly important
given it's two years after Snowden's disclosures; has anything really
improved?

...

The full abstract, and link to the paper, follows.

Abstract
Documents released by Edward Snowden have revealed that the National
Security Agency, and its Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand
equivalents, routinely monitor the Internet for the identifiers that are
contained in advertising and tracking cookies. Once collected, the
identifiers are stored in government databases and used to develop
patterns of life, or the chains of activities that individuals engage in
when they use Internet-capable devices. This paper investigates the
extent to which contemporary advertising and analytics identifiers that
are used in establishing such patterns continue to be transmitted in
plaintext following Snowden’s revelations. We look at variations in the
secure transmission of cookie-based identifiers across different website
categories, and identify practical steps for both website operators and
ad tracking companies to take to better secure their audiences and
readers from passive surveillance.

LINK: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2640610

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Sincerely,
John Wunderlich
@PrivacyCDN

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