Google enables marketers to target people with serious illnesses and crushing debt—against its policies—as well as the makers of classified defense technology, a WIRED investigation has found.
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Display & Video 360 (DV360), one of the dominant marketing platforms offered by Google, is offering companies globally the option of targeting devices in the United States based on lists of internet users believed to suffer from chronic illnesses and financial distress.
First reviewed by WIRED, an internal spreadsheet obtained from a US-based data broker shows the DV360 platform currently hosting hundreds if not thousands of restricted or otherwise sensitive “audience segments.”
“As with other demand-side platforms, advertisers are able to upload audience lists to Display & Video 360, based either on their own first-party data or from segment providers,” says Erica Walsh, a Google spokesperson.
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Segments accessible through DV360 that target Americans with asthma contain at least hundreds of millions of mobile IDs—among them, a list simply titled, “People who have asthma.”