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Unveiling Surveillance Giants: Human Rights Violations within the Ad Tech Industry

Stenberg, Jesper LU (2021) MRSM15 20211
Human Rights Studies
Abstract
In an increasingly online society, scholars have gradually come to scrutinize the ad tech industry. The research field, however, tends to focus on the most visible tech giants, such as Google or Facebook, and few researchers approach the industry from a human rights perspective. This thesis deals with some relatively unknown, but still massive, ad tech companies and unveils how they operate at the expense of users’ human rights. These companies, Criteo, Magnite, and The Trade Desk, are all serving users with targeted advertising. While targeting has benefits for both consumers and advertisers, it also contributes to the privacy violations of billions of people. Drawing from Shoshana Zuboff’s theory Surveillance Capitalism, and the... (More)
In an increasingly online society, scholars have gradually come to scrutinize the ad tech industry. The research field, however, tends to focus on the most visible tech giants, such as Google or Facebook, and few researchers approach the industry from a human rights perspective. This thesis deals with some relatively unknown, but still massive, ad tech companies and unveils how they operate at the expense of users’ human rights. These companies, Criteo, Magnite, and The Trade Desk, are all serving users with targeted advertising. While targeting has benefits for both consumers and advertisers, it also contributes to the privacy violations of billions of people. Drawing from Shoshana Zuboff’s theory Surveillance Capitalism, and the understanding of the right to privacy as central for upholding human rights online, it becomes evident that human rights are threatened on an immense scale. Through a qualitative analysis of three publishers’ cookie consent notices, this thesis demonstrates how invasive processing of user data is made possible by users uninformed consents to tracking. Beyond privacy, the advertising industry challenges the worlds democracies and people’s right to non-discrimination. My findings demonstrate the fragility of human rights online and calls for regulators to further enforce and develop applicable privacy laws. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Stenberg, Jesper LU
supervisor
organization
course
MRSM15 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Privacy, Human Rights, Ad Tech, Surveillance Capitalism, Consent, GDPR, Criteo, The Trade Desk, Magnite
language
English
id
9061296
date added to LUP
2021-08-17 08:42:17
date last changed
2021-08-17 08:42:17
@misc{9061296,
  abstract     = {{In an increasingly online society, scholars have gradually come to scrutinize the ad tech industry. The research field, however, tends to focus on the most visible tech giants, such as Google or Facebook, and few researchers approach the industry from a human rights perspective. This thesis deals with some relatively unknown, but still massive, ad tech companies and unveils how they operate at the expense of users’ human rights. These companies, Criteo, Magnite, and The Trade Desk, are all serving users with targeted advertising. While targeting has benefits for both consumers and advertisers, it also contributes to the privacy violations of billions of people. Drawing from Shoshana Zuboff’s theory Surveillance Capitalism, and the understanding of the right to privacy as central for upholding human rights online, it becomes evident that human rights are threatened on an immense scale. Through a qualitative analysis of three publishers’ cookie consent notices, this thesis demonstrates how invasive processing of user data is made possible by users uninformed consents to tracking. Beyond privacy, the advertising industry challenges the worlds democracies and people’s right to non-discrimination. My findings demonstrate the fragility of human rights online and calls for regulators to further enforce and develop applicable privacy laws.}},
  author       = {{Stenberg, Jesper}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Unveiling Surveillance Giants: Human Rights Violations within the Ad Tech Industry}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}