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• Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook• Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007
Les géants ne jouent pas le jeu
Facebook has taken the lion's share of scrutiny from Congress and the media about data-handling practices that allow savvy marketers and political agents to target specific audiences, but it's far from alone. YouTube, Google ...
The California Consumer Privacy Act, a possible California ballot measure in November, would require big companies such as Facebook, Google and AT&T to be more transparent in how they use data gathered on consumers.
Google, Facebook hidden trackers follow users around the web at alarming rates, says DuckDuckGo's CEO Gabriel Weinberg.
Et leur domination s'accentue
Le milliardaire prédit une prise de conscience
The sad truth is that Facebook and Google have behaved irresponsibly in the pursuit of massive profits. And this has come at a cost to our health
« Devenus des monopoles de plus en plus puissants, Facebook et Google sont des obstacles à l'innovation, et ils ont causé une série de problèmes dont nous commençons tout juste à prendre conscience » considère encore l’investisseur.
« Ils prétendent qu'ils ne font que diffuser des informations, mais le fait qu'ils soient des distributeurs quasi-monopolistiques en fait des services publics et les soumet à des réglementations plus strictes visant à préserver la concurrence, l'innovation et un accès universel ouvert et équitable » déclare-t-il dans son discours.
Les commentaires surviennent dans un contexte de critiques selon lesquelles la Silicon Valley devrait être tenue responsable de l'influence que la Russie a pu exercer en utilisant ses plateformes respectives lors de l'élection présidentielle américaine de 2016.
Facebook a reconnu qu'environ 126 millions d'Américains ont été exposés à du contenu promu par la Russie sur Facebook pendant l'élection. Les agents russes ont également dépensé des dizaines de milliers de dollars en publicités sur YouTube, Gmail et Google.
Soros a en outre accusé les entreprises technologiques d'être tentées de « se compromettre » pour entrer sur le marché chinois, où elles ont longtemps été interdites.
« Il pourrait y avoir une alliance entre les États autoritaires et ces grands monopoles IT riches de données qui allieraient des systèmes naissants de surveillance privés à un système déjà développé de surveillance par l'État » a prévenu Soros. « Cela pourrait bien aboutir à un réseau de contrôle totalitaire que Aldous Huxley ou George Orwell n'auraient même pas imaginé. »
It is the most comprehensive such study ever conducted: more than 144 million page loads were examined during the analysis. The research covered more than 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The study found that at least one tracker was prowling around 77.4 percent of the tested page loads. With the help of cookie or fingerprinting processes, these trackers tag along as users surf the Web, carefully recording their every move. In the most benign cases, this information is used only for statistical and advertising purposes. As a rule, a number of third-party tracking scripts hang out on popular websites, and they hitch a ride with users as they pass through domains. Ten or more trackers that amass personal data were found on 21.3 percent of the sites(unique domains) analyzed in the study.
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The study also identified the most widely used trackers online. Google and Facebook stood out in particular, here. Google ranks in the top ten of the most widely used trackers based on page loads with five services. Facebook has three. Google Analytics was found on nearly half of all loaded pages (46.4 percent). Facebook Connect was on more than a fifth (21.9 percent).
European Union states could have lost 5.4 billion euros in tax revenues from Google and Facebook between 2013 and 2015, according to a report of the EU lawmaker responsible for a corporate tax reform that could raise online giants’ tax bill.
The Financial Times reports big internet companies are paying Adblock Plus "30% of additional revenues" they would make from ads being unblocked.
Digital ad revenue in the U.S. grew by more than 20% last year to a record $72.5 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. That's the good news.
The bad news—at least for those who dislike duopolies—is that some estimates by other industry experts show that virtually all of growth in digital ad spending went to Google and Facebook, which already account for more than three-quarters of the U.S. digital ad market.
A court ruling could make it difficult to trust U.S. tech companies with private information.
Google recently announced that it would start including individual users' names and photos in some ads. This means that if you rate some product positively, your friends may see ads for that product with your name and photo attached -- without your knowledge or consent. Meanwhile, Facebook is eliminating a feature that allowed people to retain some portions of their anonymity on its website.
These changes come on the heels of Google's move to explore replacing tracking cookies with something that users have even less control over. Microsoft is doing something similar by developing its own tracking technology.