Search
Content type: Explainer
24th February 2020
Television offers some of the earliest instances of digital marketing. The majority of television channels rely on commercials and advertisements to maintain their operations. For the past 75 years, TV adverts have been passive transmissions broadcast to viewers, the demographics of the channels audience guiding the kinds of products and services shown during commercial breaks and intermissions. With the changes in the way individuals are now consuming content however, broadcasters are trying…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating systems first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g. privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating system first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating system first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Overview
Pi-hole is a general purpose network-wide ad-blocker that protects your network from ads and trackers without requiring any setup on individual devices. It is able to block ads on any network device (e.g. smart appliances), and, unlike browser add-ons, Pi-hole blocks ads on any type of software.
The general setup works as follows (Fig. 1). You install Pi-hole on your server (in this case, we're using a Raspberry Pi) and assign it a static IP address. On your router, you set the DNS…
Content type: Long Read
1st May 2020
Photo by Cade Roberts on Unsplash
For those of you who don't spend the most productive part of your day scanning the news for developments about data and competition, here's what has been going on in the UK since summer 2019.
Basically, the UK competition authority started an investigation into online platforms and digital advertising last summer, and issued their preliminary findings in December 2019, concluding that Facebook and Google are very powerful in the search engine and social media…
Content type: Frequently Asked Questions
27th October 2020
On 27 October 2020, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a report into three credit reference agencies (CRAs) - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - which also operate as data brokers for direct marketing purposes.
After our initial reaction, below we answer some of the main questions regarding this report.
Content type: Video
23rd June 2020
Immediately following the UK general election in December 2019, we worked with Open Rights Group to commission a YouGov poll about public understanding and public opinion about the use of data-driven campaigning in elections.
The poll used a representative sample of 1,664 adults across the UK population.
'Data-driven political campaigning' is about using specific data about you to target specific messages at you. So, for this might involve knowing that you are, for example, likely to have…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Opt out of targeted ads
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy. To opt out of targeted ads on Windows, open the Start menu, go to Settings > Privacy > General, and disable all options (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
The Advertising ID is a unique identifier offered by the MacOS Operating System that advertisers might use to uniquely identify you. It facilitates the creation of a profile by advertisers or data brokers that can later be used for advertisement targeting or other purposes.
Opt out of targeted advertising
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose with regards to your digital privacy. To opt out of targeted ads on macOS, open the System Preferences app, go to the…
Content type: Guide step
7th December 2020
The Advertising ID is a unique identifier offered by the Android Operating System that advertisers might use to uniquely identify you. It facilitates the creating of a profile by advertisers or data brokers that can later be used for advertisement targeting or other purposes.
Opt out of targeted advertising
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy.
To opt out of targeted ads, open the Settings app and go to Privacy > Ads and…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Warning: If you are using iOS 14+, targeted advertisements are opt-in by default.
Opt out of targeted advertising
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy.
To opt out of targeted ads based on location, open the Settings app and go to Privacy > Location Services > System Services and turn off Location-Based Apple Ads (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Installation
Like any other add-on, install Firefox Multi-Account Containers by visiting the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons page and clicking Add to Firefox (Fig. 1) and then clicking on Add when prompted (Fig. 2).
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock which is a different project) is an independent and open-source ad blocker relying on a curated list of servers. It prevents your browser from connecting to these servers to serve you ads.
Note: There are many ad blockers on the market and you can test alternatives. By using an independent, open-source and free ad blocker, you are more likely to avoid products with conflicts of interest, spywares or blockers with "acceptable ads" programs…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Blokada is an ad-blocker acting as a VPN to block unwanted traffic based on hostnames (urls). This prevents ads and malicious data from being loaded by any application running on your device.
Installation
To install Blokada, visit its Apple App Store page, click on Get (Fig. 1), and confirm by clicking Install when prompted (Fig. 2).
Content type: Guide step
5th March 2020
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock which is a different project) is an independent and open-source ad blocker relying on a curated list of servers. It prevents your browser from connecting to these servers to serve you ads.
Note: There are many ad blockers on the market and you can test alternatives. By using an independent, open-source and free ad blocker, you are more likely to avoid products with conflicts of interest, spywares or blockers with "acceptable ads" programs…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Blokada is an ad-blocker acting as a VPN to block unwanted traffic based on hostnames (urls). This prevents ads and malicious data from being loaded by any application running on your device.
Installation
To install Blokada, visit its Play Store page and click on Install (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock which is a different project) is an independent and open-source ad blocker relying on a curated list of servers. It prevents your browser from connecting to these servers to serve you ads.
Note: There are many ad blockers on the market and you can test alternatives. By using an independent, open-source and free ad blocker, you are more likely to avoid products with conflicts of interest, spywares or blockers with "acceptable ads" programs…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
When you access a website, your browser sends a string called the User Agent containing your browser's name, operating system, and other technical metadata of your device. Unfortunately, this metadata is often abused by trackers to build a fingerprint of your system and uniquely identify you throughout the web. To limit the efficiency of fingerprinting you can install a random agent switcher which periodically changes your browser's user agent, making it harder to uniquely identify you.…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
When you access a website, your browser sends a string called the User Agent containing your browser's name, operating system, and other technical metadata of your device. Unfortunately, this metadata is often abused by trackers to build a fingerprint of your system and uniquely identify you throughout the web. To limit the efficiency of fingerprinting you can install a random agent switcher which periodically changes your browser's user agent, making it harder to uniquely identify you.…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated add-on, you can clean your cookies regularily to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficienty of online trackers.
This guide explain how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated addon, you can clean your cookies regularily to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficienty of online trackers.
This guide explains how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated add-on, you can clean your cookies regularly to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficiency of online trackers.
This guide explains how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are geographically distributed networks of proxy servers that seek to provide features such as better availability and performances for websites. While the goal is commendable, it also means that these CDN providers receive metadata related to the websites you visit (where they are set up). With this is mind, you might want to sacrifice the added convenience and avoid large CDN providers (such as Google and Cloudfare) to prevent them from obtaining any data…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are geographically distributed network of proxy servers that seek to provide features such as better availability and performances for websites. While the goal is commendable, it also means that these CDN providers receive metadata related to the websites you visit (where they are setup). With this is mind, you might want to sacrifice the added convenience and avoid large CDN providers (such as Google and Cloudfare) to prevent them from obtaining any data…
Content type: Guide step
1st May 2020
Google dominates online search. The company also owns YouTube and Android, with the latter reportedly making up nearly 75% of the global smart phone market share. PI has written about the numerous problems that come from corporate concentration and the use of data by monopolistic companies, and there are numerous examples of Google's failure to protect its users.
Below is a set of steps you can take if you wish to minimise ad targeting when using Google.
1. Go to gmail.com and sign in
