On Monday 20 November, MEPs from the S&D, Greens/EFA and Renew Europe groups, on the initiative of Paul Tang (S&D, Dutch), questioned the European Commission on the measures it intends to take to assess the extent to which online advertising targets political decision-makers.
These questions come as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties published two reports on 14 November indicating that third countries were using real-time data auctions by platforms such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon to obtain information on political figures within the EU and in the United States.
These practices involve selling an advertising impression and allow advertisers and other data brokers to consult the data purchased. However, reports from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties point out that some countries, notably China and Russia, legally authorise national security agencies to consult this data. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)