EPIC Alleges in FTC Complaint That Google Sends China Sensitive Data
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, filed a complaint Thursday at the FTC alleging that Google sends huge quantities of Americans’ sensitive data to China and other foreign adversaries, EPIC announced in a news release.
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“Google has time and again proven that it cannot be trusted to protect our data. The FTC must act to rein in Google’s data abuses, which expose Americans’ data to foreign adversaries, undermining democracy, and threatening our national security,” said Sara Geoghegan, EPIC senior counsel.
The complaint, the first filed under the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, alleges Google has known for more than a decade that its Real-Time Bidding (RBT) system, used for online advertising, broadcasts sensitive data without security measures. The complaint alleges internal communications prove that Google CEO Sundar Pichai failed to act on internal calls in 2021 to revise the RBT system.
“We can now be certain Google knew about the security flaw in its advertising system for at least a decade,” said Johnny Ryan, director of Enforce. “Despite this, it continued to vent sensitive data, betraying America and her allies. The FTC must act to end Google’s security crisis.”
The RTB system operates on more than 33 million websites and comprises much of Google’s ad revenue, estimated at greater than $235 billion, according to the news release. The sensitive data includes information about people’s health, sexuality and politics, among other things. Moreover, sensitive data from active military personnel, judges and national security leaders is available for purchase on the commercial market, according to a 2023 Enforce report that Thursday’s complaint highlights.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.