Australians who drink, gamble and are in financial distress are being micro-targeted with online ads

Australians are being targeted with online advertising based on their classification as in financial distress, underage or even for having visited a casino or hospital, a new report has found.

Reset.Tech Australia, the local arm of an international technology policy advocacy group, reviewed a database of accidentally leaked online advertising data from Microsoft’s ad platform Xandr to understand how Australians were being tracked and sold to online.

This data listed more than 650,000 ways that people were being classified — known as “audience segments” — that advertisers could use to specifically target with their messages. These segments are mostly based on data gleaned from people’s online habits and are tied to individual’s “digital identifiers”, which allow them to remain technically anonymous while still trackable.

According to an analysis of 8,300 segments directly relevant to Australians by international human rights lawyer Dr Susie Alegre and featuring contributions from researcher Wolfie Christl on behalf of Reset.Tech Australia, advertisers are offered access to Australians in financial stress, gamblers, drinkers and children either directly or indirectly through proxy attributes. 

This, Alegre wrote, shows how people who are vulnerable can be at risk of manipulation made possible by the sale and exchange of their personal data. Possible risks include being discriminated against, excluded and targeted with scams or inappropriate goods. 

“The manipulation of individuals through online targeted advertising can have serious consequences for families, communities and states,” she wrote.

The report lists the specific audience segments through which potentially vulnerable Australians can be targeted, including:

• People who are “casino frequenters”;
• People who have “discount purchasing power” for alcoholic beverages;
• People who’ve been assessed as high credit risks;
• People aged 0-17, and people who have visited primary and secondary schools.

The online advertising industry is opaque, meaning it’s difficult for someone who’s been shown an ad to know why they’re being shown it and if the audience segments applied to them are accurate. 

Alegre argued that the manipulation made possible by online advertising could violate human rights: “It interferes with our rights to a private life protected under international law, but also potentially interferes with our absolute right to freedom of thought.”

The report was released as the federal government considers how to implement reforms to the Privacy Act. It calls for the government to allow Australians to opt out of targeted advertising — a recommendation in the Privacy Act review that the government “noted” in its response. 

“We hope the discussions in this paper — centring around potential harm to consumers and rights violations that routinely occur through the targeted advertising business model — inform these considerations and ultimately lead to stronger protection for Australians,” Alegre concluded.