Wolfie ChristlSep 5, 2024

Revisiting 2 of the 5 docs from the Snowden leaks that mention 'cookies'.

GCHQ 2009 on 'target detection identifiers':
https://snowden.glendon.yorku.ca/items/show/188/

NSA 2011 on 'selector types':
https://snowden.glendon.yorku.ca/items/show/172

...featuring cookie/browser IDs from Google/Doubleclick, Facebook, Microsoft and many more.

It's breathtaking how the surveillance marketing industry has still managed to claim for many years that unique personal identifiers processed in the web browser are 'anonymous', and sometimes still does.

Target Detection Identifiers · Snowden Archive

Show threadWolfie ChristlSep 5, 2024

Browser-based personal identifiers aka 'target detection identifiers' are 'unique and persistent for a user/machine', and they are a 'SIGINT standardised code', according to GCHQ (2009).

Ryan Gallagher reported on Snowden docs that mention browser/cookie IDs aka 'target detection identifiers' in 2014 and 2015:
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/25/gchq-radio-porn-spies-track-web-users-online-identities/
https://theintercept.com/2014/12/13/belgacom-hack-gchq-inside-story/

From Radio to Porn, British Spies Track Web Users’ Online Identities

Top-secret documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden expose UK eavesdropping agency GCHQ's attempts to create world's largest mass surveillance system.

The Intercept
Show threadtewi [she/her] 🏳️‍⚧️
@wchr more relevant today, cookie overlap warrants
Sep 5, 2024 at 7:36pmWeb
Show threadWolfie ChristlSep 5, 2024
@tewi Interesting, thx. Adding the link here:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/press-release/file/1121236/dl