A WIRED investigation into the inner workings of Google’s advertising ecosystem reveals that a wealth of sensitive information on Americans is being openly served up to some of the world’s largest brands despite the company’s own rules against it. Experts say that when combined with other data, this information could be used to identify and target specific individuals.
Display & Video 360 (DV360), one of the dominant marketing platforms offered by the search giant, is offering companies globally the option of targeting devices in the United States based on lists of internet users believed to suffer from chronic illnesses and financial distress, among other categories of personal data that are ostensibly banned under Google’s public policies.
Other lists of American users accessible for a price across the platform raise serious national security concerns, experts say, as they reveal data brokers striving to isolate millions of mobile devices carried by government workers—from US judges and military service members to executive agency staff and employees on Capitol Hill.
First reviewed by WIRED, an internal spreadsheet obtained from a US-based data broker shows the DV360 platform currently hosting hundreds if not thousands of restricted or otherwise sensitive “audience segments,” each containing a large tranche of data that points to countless mobile devices and online profiles of people in the US. The segments are generated not by Google, but by DV360 customers who upload them to the system, where others can use them to target ads at specific audiences.
The data—first obtained by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), Ireland’s oldest independent human rights body—reveals segments targeting hundreds of millions of device users based exclusively on health conditions, from chronic pain and menopause to, among others, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, arthritis, high cholesterol, and hypertension.
“As with other demand-side platforms, advertisers are able to upload audience lists to Display & Video 360, based either on their own first-party data or from segment providers,” says Erica Walsh, a Google spokesperson. “Our policies do not permit audience segments to be used based on sensitive information like employment, health conditions, financial status, etc.”
Despite this, numerous segments contained in the data are clearly targeted at households and businesses based purely on data suggesting they’re experiencing financial hardship—aiming, for instance, to help advertisers identify people who are in the process of bankruptcy or burdened by long-term debt.
Allison Bodack, another Google spokesperson, tells WIRED that when the company detects “non-compliant audience segments, we will take action.” Asked to explain why Google had not detected segments with descriptions such as “Individuals likely to have a Cardiovascular condition,” or “Parents of children likely to have a respiratory disease, like Asthma,” Bodack did not respond.
Segments accessible through DV360 that target Americans with asthma contain at least hundreds of millions of mobile IDs—among them, a list simply titled, “People who have asthma.” Hundreds of millions more were found on lists for no other reason than the fact that their users are believed to have diabetes. A vast number of devices and user profiles are spread out across lists that target users determined likely to need specific medications, including some controlled substances, such as Ambien. One list links more than 140 million mobile IDs to opioid usage, suggesting the users need relief from a common “opioid-induced” side effect.
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