*Europe's hidden security crisis* /How data about European defence personnel and political leaders flows to foreign states and non-state actors/ https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/europes-hidden-security-crisis/ *Real-Time Bidding (RTB) allows foreign states and non-state actors to obtain compromising sensitive personal data about key European personnel and leaders.* *Key insights:* * Our investigation highlights**a widespread trade in data about sensitive European personnel and leaders that exposes them to blackmail, hacking and compromise, and undermines the security of their organisations and institutions**. ** ** * These data flow from Real-Time Bidding (RTB), an advertising technology that is *active on almost all websites and apps*. RTB involves the broadcasting of sensitive data about people using those websites and apps to large numbers of other entities, *without security measures to protect the data*. This occurs billions of times a day. * Our examination of tens of thousands of pages of RTB data reveals that *EU military personnel and political decision makers are targeted using RTB*. * This report also reveals that *Google* and other RTB firms *send RTB data about people in the U.S. to Russia* and *China*, where national laws enable security agencies to access the data. *RTB data are also broadcast widely within the EU in a free-for-all, which means that foreign and non-state actors can indirectly obtain them, too*. * RTB data often include location data or time-stamps or other identifiers that make it relatively easy for bad actors to link them to specific individuals. Foreign states and non-state actors can use RTB to spy on *target individuals’ financial problems, mental state, and compromising intimate secrets*. Even if target individuals use secure devices, data about them will still flow via RTB from personal devices, their friends, family, and compromising personal contacts. * In addition, private surveillance companies in foreign countries deploy RTB data for*surreptitious surveillance*. We reveal “Patternz”, a previously unreported surveillance tool that uses RTB to profile 5 billion people, including *the children of their targets*. * Our examination of RTB data reveals *Cambridge Analytica style psychological profiling* of target individuals’ *movements*, *financial problems*, *mental health problems* and vulnerabilities, including if they are likely*survivors of sexual abuse*. * *Real-Time Bidding's security flaw is a national security problem*.