What is real-time bidding and why does it expose my data hundreds of times a day?
Real-time bidding is the ad-auction system that runs when a page loads: a bid request containing your device ID, IP, often GPS-level location, and inferred interests broadcasts to potentially thousands of ad-tech firms within roughly 50-120 milliseconds. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties documented 178 trillion such broadcasts a year — 747 per average American per day.
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How Google Actually Tracks You: The Data Empire Behind the Search BoxChrome logs your keystrokes, ad auctions broadcast your location 747 times a day, and DHS subpoenaed Gmail records in 4 hours. Here's the verified system.
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