The advertising industry has more than 650,000 labels to target people. Reading through them reveals how even the most sensitive aspects of our life are monitored. EU-based data brokers play a vital role in this system.
While I agree that advertisers go much too far, the 650k labels figure used here is a bit manipulative. They make it seem like the advertisers have 650k different bits of information on everyone, but clearly they don’t.
The examples they provide of labels show that they are combinations of multiple things. For example they show a label “France + Land Rover”, which really are two different bits of information combined into one label. If they would have an exhaustive list of all countries (about 200) and the most popular car brands (let’s say about 20), that would be around 4000 labels, or 0.6% of the 650k labels. If they add a third characteristic, that number would explode.
While I agree that advertisers go much too far, the 650k labels figure used here is a bit manipulative. They make it seem like the advertisers have 650k different bits of information on everyone, but clearly they don’t.
The examples they provide of labels show that they are combinations of multiple things. For example they show a label “France + Land Rover”, which really are two different bits of information combined into one label. If they would have an exhaustive list of all countries (about 200) and the most popular car brands (let’s say about 20), that would be around 4000 labels, or 0.6% of the 650k labels. If they add a third characteristic, that number would explode.