Big Tech monitors entire web, even those without accounts

ISTANBUL

Tech giants are using invisible tracking pixels to harvest personal data from internet users, including those without accounts on their platforms.

As digital advertising evolves, major technology companies generate massive profits by deploying transparent graphic files across millions of websites and e-mails.

The data collected by these systems range from IP addresses and clicked products to sensitive health diagnoses, with the information transmitted directly to corporate servers.

Companies use this data to target advertisements more precisely, significantly increasing their effectiveness.

One of the most controversial aspects of today’s digital surveillance ecosystem is the use of “shadow profiles.”

Platforms are able to collect and store data on non-users without their consent by utilizing information provided by their social circles and online activity across the web.

IP addresses and browser fingerprints enable companies to build consistent digital identities on people, so if a non-user ends up joining the platform in the future, years of accumulated behavioral data can be instantly linked to their new account.

Google’s parent company Alphabet operates the most extensive tracking network on the web, according to DuckDuckGo’s Tracker Radar, which claims to have exposed “hidden tracking.”

The report says that Google can observe user data on around 70% of all visited websites, which means the tech giant pretty much has an eye on almost every corner of the Internet.

Microsoft tracks 30% and Facebook 19.7% of all visited sites.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has trackers present on roughly 5% of websites, lagging way behind competitors.

These trackers extend deeply into sensitive sectors such as the US healthcare system.

Some 66% of US hospitals use tracking pixels on their websites, according to a large-scale study published in the PNAS Nexus academic journal.

These pixels transmit details including which clinics patients checked out or which medical conditions they searched for to major technology companies.

Advocate Aurora Health, one of the largest US nonprofit healthcare systems, used Meta Pixel and Google Analytics to improve its services, according to the study.

These tools transmitted the personal health information of around 3 million patients to third-party tech firms, which ended up in a massive class-action lawsuit.

Even though the underlying technology of tracking pixels remains legal, data collection is governed by regulations around the world, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK).

Companies are required to obtain active and freely given explicit consent for any non-essential tracking for advertising or profiling to be in compliance with laws.

Sharing sensitive data without consent has severe legal penalties in the US, even though the pixels themselves remain legal.

More than 50 class-action lawsuits have been filed against Meta and Google over the use of tracking pixels in the healthcare sector.

The US Federal Trade Commission has labeled the undisclosed operation of tracking pixels a deceptive practice and has imposed fines totaling millions of dollars.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim