INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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Almost all EU government websites have trackers
Online tools
which track user behaviour for advertisers have been found on a swathe of EU public health websites, including NHS and Gov.uk pages.These
trackers could compromise sensitive data about people, according to researchers at data protection compliance service Cookiebot.The
researchers also discovered trackers on 89% of EU government websites.Most of the trackers were developed by Google.They were designed to
"associate web activity with the identities of real people" Cookiebot said.Of all the 28 EU member states, only Spanish, German and Dutch
government websites were tracker-free."We of course expect everyone to fully comply with EU data protection rules and it is the
responsibility of EU data protection authorities to ensure compliance," a spokeswoman for the European Commission said.But the public health
website trackers presented additional risks, said Cookiebot."Over 100 advertising technology companies are systemically and invisibly
tracking EU citizens when they visit their governments online, or when they access public health service resources about sensitive issues,
such as pregnancy, sexual health, cancer or mental illness," it explained.Some of the search queries that could bring users to these public
health pages included "I have HIV, now what" and "I want to terminate my pregnancy".The Cookiebot researchers argued that this personal and
sensitive information could be sold on by the ad tech industry and used to target online ads.In a statement, Google said, "We do not permit
publishers to use our technology to collect or build targeting lists based on users' sensitive information, including health conditions like
pregnancy or HIV.""The UK government urgently needs to ensure that its own websites, especially health and welfare sites, are not handing
sensitive personal data to advertisers so that they can profile and monetise knowledge about very private topics," Jim Killock at the Open
Rights Group told the TheIndianSubcontinent."This kind of practice is in our view unlawful, both on the grounds of needing explicit consent,
and on the grounds that it is impossible to know where the information about you ends up, once it is placed into advertising bidding
systems."The UK Information Commissioner's Office said it was "looking into" tracking and other technologies used for targeting online
