Brave, Google’s rival, has revealed a massive leak of sensitive data in the UK

Over 6.9 million British people were followed by a company previously associated with Cambridge Analytica.

400 UK town halls work with companies to track user activity

A new Brave report found that over 400 town halls had at least one private company for tracking their site users to profit from their Internet activity.

The site, administered by local town halls, also provided advice for people with disabilities, poor people and drug addicts. Brave found that 23 town halls provided information – collected through cookies – to third parties. Everything was done without user consent.

Brave found that the town hall served a total of 6.9 million users and sold it to brokerage company LiveRamp. LiveRamp used to be part of the Acxiom Group, which sold data to the infamous company Cambridge Analytica.

Sensitive data may be misused for profit

“Because of the nature of this site, it can reveal very sensitive characteristics regarding the financial situation and human health,” Johnny Ryan, Chief Privacy Officer, Brave. “It is inexcusable to make profit on those people who seek help for addictions, disabilities and poverty on the Web site.” he added.

One possible solution is to switch to Brave

Brave, a competitor of Google Chrome, does not collect such information. Instead, uses blockchain of ETH to offer a new ad type. Brave rewards users for watching ads with their cryptocurrency, the Brave Attention Token (BAT).

Summary

Tracking users and abusing their activity on the website for their own benefit is definitely unacceptable. And that kind of revelation is always a scandal. How will Google and the UK handle this?