Microsoft's advertising platform Xandr was found to target various audience segments with numerous data points of sensitive information, according to an analysis by The Markup. The publication examined 650,000 Xandr audience segments and found ads were targeted to users on the basis of the frequency of pregnancy tests they bought or their level of depression, for example. The dataset shows "how disparate pools of personal data — collected by tracking people's online activity and real-world movements — are combined into bespoke, branded groups of potential ad viewers that can be marketed to publishers and advertisers."
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