The Overprofiling extensions team has been developed by researchers at the IMDEA Networks Institute and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, both institutions located in Madrid, Spain. Our goal is to better understand how the main advertising platforms, Google and Facebook, use the interests associated with their users to distribute ads based on those interests.
By installing and running this extension, you will contribute to a research project that aims to better understand the online advertising ecosystem and in turn to improve their transparency. To achieve our objective, we collect information about your Google and Facebook accounts, as well as other information that we require to better understand this ecosystem, without collecting any personal information that can reveal the identity of the user. You can more details about the data collected for research purposes in the following sections.
Storage
We need to get access to the storage to save information in the localStorage related to the session, as well as data related to the own operation of the extension, like the list of interests obtained from your Google and Facebook accounts. This permission provides us the capacity to save information locally in the Browser.
UnlimitedStorage
The information stored in the localStorage could exceed the default limit (5MB). Exceed this limit could affect the functionalities of the extension. Using this permission we can exceed the default limit and ensure the correct operation of the extension.
Tabs
One of the main objectives of the extension is that the users respond to a survey about how relevant the interests associated with their Google and Facebook accounts are. To display this survey, we need to get access to the tabs. This survey will be displayed to the users when they install the extensions and when they click on the extension's icon in the bar. This permission gives the extension the capacity to open and close tabs.
Hosts
We need to get access to the content of all websites to search for ads distributed on general websites. Due to all websites could potentially contain ads, we cannot discard any websites. This permission will allow us to interact with any website.
We do not collect any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). To distinguish you between all the users, we generate an ID of 256 bits created once you install the extension. This ID remains stored on the browser until you remove the extension.
We collect interests associated with your Google and Facebook profiles. We collect the interestes using the Ad Preference Managers (APMs) of each platform every 20 minutes. This process is completely automated, but you need to be logged into your Facebook and Google account before install the extensions.
Ads delivered to you on Facebook and general websites. We collect the landing page of the ads and information related to them, like the explanation offered by Facebook and Google about why you have received those specific ads.This explanation is only available if Facebook or Google deliver the ads.
The domains that you visit. We only collect the Fully Qualify Domain Name, and not the full URL.