Trump won't lift a finger to save Mike Johnson from a Republican uprising in the House of Representatives, sources say.

Governments are responding to consumer concerns about privacy with legislation. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The impact of this legislation is evident, as websites now request permission to track users' online activities. However, many users remain unaware of the implications of such choices or how the scale of information sharing is cleverly concealed. Websites and privacy

As Canadian lawmakers develop updates to online privacy, our research examines when and why companies are actively hiding - and how widely - our personal data. We found that obfuscating or masking information sharing is a strategy actively used by websites to mislead users and increase the cost of monitoring.

Our research

Our research group has been studying website privacy issues for many years, particularly regarding the sharing of consumer data with third parties for the monetization of web traffic. Our research has shown that websites with sensitive content, such as medical and banking sites, are naturally limited in the market when it comes to sharing with third parties. These websites are also more privacy-sensitive and therefore less likely to conceal the extent of information sharing. We have also examined cases of privacy violations that occurred due to the increased use of online services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a study that allows us to predict the reliability of websites by observing how they engage third parties. We discussed how privacy consent legislation could increase sharing with third parties.

Data collection and exchange

We have examined data collection by third-party websites, revealing extensive tracking mechanisms used by platforms and advertisers to capture consumer information.