Google sends enormous quantities of sensitive data about Americans to China and other foreign adversaries, according to evidence in a major complaint filed today at the FTC by Enforce and EPIC. This is the first ever complaint under the new Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act.
The complaint targets a major part of Google’s business: Google’s Real-Time Bidding (RTB) system dominates online advertising, and operates on 33.7 million websites, 92% of Android apps, and 77% of iOS apps. Much of Google’s $237.9 billion advertising revenue is RTB.
Today’s complaint reveals that Google has known for at least a decade that its RTB technology broadcasts sensitive data without any security, according to internal Google discussions highlighted in today’s complaint.