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ISLAMIC STATE HAS become notorious around the world for its brutal violence – including mass killings and beheadings – in the space of less than 18 months.
In that time, it has risen from regional force to global threat.
Barack Obama, before the Paris terror attacks on Friday, said that the militant group’s geographic expansion in Iraq and Syria had been contained.
Today, faced with an utterly changed geopolitical landscape in the wake of the carnage in Paris, the world’s major powers have been setting out their coordinated response to the violence, which has been claimed by IS.
A new Islamic State video threatens a Paris-style attack on Washington https://t.co/zl8WT1O1h0
Obama has declared it as an “attack on the civilised world” – and Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the tragic events in Paris showed the global community needed “to unite our efforts in fighting this evil, something we should have done a long time ago”.
So what are the roots of the group?
And how has their influence and capability grown in the year-and-a-half since they first became widely known outside of Iraq and Syria?
Tributes at the Le Petit Cambodge in Paris, following the terrorist attacks on Friday evening.
PA WIRE
PA WIRE
The idea of a caliphate – which is, roughly-speaking, the creation of a holy land for Muslims under the leadership of a ‘caliph’ – dates back to the seventh century, after the time of the prophet Muhammad’s death. Isis has resurrected the idea.
The militant group has existed in various forms since 1999 and was originally an Iraq-based affiliate of al-Qaida.
Islamic State’s current leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – who was born in Iraq in 1971 – took over in charge in 2010.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, speaking in Mosul in 2014.
In 2013 Islamic State in Iraq changed its name to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – becoming known as Isis or Isil around the western world. In Arabic, Islamic State is known as Daesh.
Al-Qaida formally ended its affiliation with the group in February of 2014, having become frustrated with its independence and brutality, according to Bloomberg.
Al-Baghdadi claims to be a direct descendent of the prophet Muhammad. The US State Department has a bounty of $10 million on his head.
How much territory does it hold?
The group took control of the western Iraqi city of Fallujah in September 2012. It began to advance across eastern parts of Syria the following spring – seizing oil wells and collecting taxes to fund its war effort as it continued its attacks.
Islamic State militants took control of Raqqah in 2014, and the Syrian city has since become the group’s de facto capital.
IS extremists seized control of Iraq’s second biggest city, Mosul, in June of last year – sending troops and residents fleeing. Members of the Iraqi military reportedly abandoned their posts as the Isis fighters advanced.
A US Department of Defense map of Isis territory from April of this year. US Department of Defense
US Department of Defense
According to the BBC, then-director of the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Matthew Olsen, said in September of 2014 that Islamic State controlled much of the Tigris-Euphrates river basin – an area similar in size to the UK.
Some 25% to 30% of Iraqi territory had been taken back from Islamic State by April of this year, the US defence department said. However, its territory in Syria remained largely unaffected.
How has it built its power?
Islamic State’s reputation for violence and brutality spread online and via traditional media from the summer of 2014.
A series of horrific killings were carried out by the group – many presided over by the masked militant known as ‘Jihadi John’ (Mohammed Emwazi – he was the target of a US drone strike last Thursday and is now believed killed).
Still image from an Islamic State video.
Among those beheaded by Islamic State in videos posted online since August 2014 were US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
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In the videos, a tall masked figure clad in black and speaking in a British accent typically began one of the gruesome videos with a political rant and a kneeling hostage before him, and ended it holding an oversize knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand.
IS militants have shown themselves to be sophisticated users of social media – and are reported to have recruiters all over the western world seeking out new fighters.
A number of other groups have also pledged allegiance to Islamic State, effectively creating ‘franchises’ – including Nigeria’s Boko Haram, as well as groups in Libya and on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Traditional advances also continued across Iraq and Syria – including May’s capture of the ancient city of Palmyra. Ramadi, the capital of the western Iraqi province of Anbar, also fell to Isis in spring of this year – months after Iraqi forces retook the city of Tikrit, backed by airstrikes.
Many of its weapons are simply captured from its enemies in the battlefield. However, the group has also had strong support from within a number of Gulf countries. War reporter David Axe told Public Radio International last year that Isis, like all Syrian opposition groups, has enjoyed support from individuals within Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
“What ISIS wants, to some extent, overlaps with what certain powerful people in some of these Gulf states want, which is, for lack of a better word, a ‘Sunni-stan’ — a homogenous Sunni Muslim state in what is now Syria and Iraq,” Axe said.
Who is fighting them?
The US began airstrikes against IS in Iraq in August of 2014. Coalition airstrikes on territory in Syria – including Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – began the following month.
Associated Press
Associated Press
Britain has been involved in strikes on Iraqi territory but not in Syria. However, speaking earlier this month foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the country expected to escalate its campaign against Isis into Syria as soon as a consensus could be reached in Parliament.
France carried out its first air-strikes against Islamic State in Syria in September of this year - destroying a training camp in the eastern town of Deir al-Zour. Like the UK, the country had previously confined its strikes to Iraqi airspace.
Backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia entered the Syrian civil war at the end of September this year – targeting rebel groups backed by western leaders, as well as Islamic State.
An RAF Reaper UAV. PA WIRE
PA WIRE
Why are people talking about a ‘new phase’ of violence?
While there has been no hard evidence as yet, it’s highly likely Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt was behind the bombing of a Russian passenger jet over the Sinai desert, which crashed killing all 244 people on board last month.
It’s believed a bomb was placed in the plane’s hold before take-off.
“The Sinai attack would be a first, and would signal that the Islamic State has become both capable of — and interested in — joining the dreadful ranks of global terrorism,” an analysis by the Soufan Group, a private geopolitical risk assessment company, found.
A Russian investigator walks near wreckage of the downed plane. Associated Press
Associated Press
Isis were also blamed for two suicide bomb attacks that killed 100 people attending a pro-Kurdish rally in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on 11 October.
The group also claimed responsibility for twin bombs that killed 44 people in Beirut on Thursday of last week.
France has already responded to Friday’s attacks with a series of “massive” airstrikes on Isis stronghold Raqqa.
World leaders have also vowed to boost intelligence sharing, cut off terrorist funding and strengthen border security in Europe as they seek to show unity in the wake of the Paris attacks.
While US officials said President Obama viewed the attacks in France as an act of war, they cautioned he had no plans to overhaul his strategy for dismantling Islamic State.
The President later said it would be a mistake to send US troops into a ground war.
Special intervention forces sit on top of a roof as they prepare to enter a house in Brussels today. Associated Press
Associated Press
Meanwhile, a crackdown on suspected accomplices of the Paris bombings has been continuing in France and Belgium.
French police carried out nearly 170 searches and arrested 23 people in raids overnight, and 104 people have been placed under house arrest over the weekend.
The Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud – a child of Moroccan immigrants – was today named by French authorities as the suspected mastermind behind the Paris attacks.
With reporting from Associated Press.
(Updated at 4.30pm to include detail on where Isis gets weapons and support – following a number of queries – DB)
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Weapon makers love wars being carried out. Just like private doctors love sick patients.. Isis sell oil every day worth millions, with that type of money whatever you want is never to far away, not to mention the robberies they commit as well, more millions. The likes of Saudi Arabia don’t care about giving them weapons, I’m sure some of the weapons they use have traveled from America as well even..
The Saudis are the largest exporters of Salafi Wahhabism in the world. Whether they’re funding ISIS directly or not, the fact remains the ideology they espouse bears much resemblance to the one of ISIS.
The Saudis are the largest importer of US arms globally and they’re currently killing hundreds of civilians in Yemen with US, British and French support. The influence of Saudi in that region along with the destabilisation of Iraq has contributed to the monstrosity that is ISIS.
Yeah, well Saudi Arabia is involved in a proxy war with Iran for dominance over who supplies the rest of the world with its resources . Syria, being an ally with Iran, is pipeline central for any resources to be pumped towards Europe. Saudi Arbia wants to destabilize Syria, thus weakening Irans position, so it arms and funds ISIS. Que Bueno or who benefits is Saudi Arabia and the mega global corporations who control the oil supply…..Sometimes truth is definitely stranger than fiction.
“Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton. “More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” says a secret December 2009 paper. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.”
The fact that the US and other Western powers continue to supply the Saudi government with billions in weaponry proves they prioritise money above the victims of terrorism.
Derek: That is definitely correct. Iran is a theocracy and has its issues with human rights, but it is not the reason for major instability throughout the region despite what the neocons in Washington claim.
“In the coming weeks the government’s surveillance bill will be passing through the Commons. If we truly believe in standing in solidarity with Paris, we must let it pass. We must demand it passes.”
“I have less and less sympathy with those who oppose the new surveillance powers that the government would like to give the security services……..I want these people properly spied on, properly watched – and I bet you do, too.”
Actually they were largely armed and trained, directly and indirectly by the U.S. They receive their funding from Saudi Arabia and seized oil wells. Qutar actually funds the slightly more moderate Muslim Brotherhood.
The west needs to start openly asking questions of the Saudis.
That’s not the point of this badly written article. The ISIL say they have two enemies. The “near enemy ” ( local) and the ” far enemy” , the West. Now that they have their Caliphate , they are turning attention to the far enemy . That is the strategy. The article could be a lot shorter , a lot more precise , and a lot more accurate. It is waffle.
Where did ISIS get their weapon originally.
During the second Iraq war Saddam opened all Iraq’s armouries to the public in the mis-belief that all Iraqis would rally to him and with patriotic pride defend Iraq against the invasion. After Saddam’s government fell and his military went on the run, many of his Officer Corp found a home with AQ which later split into ISIS.
ISIS gained strength among Iraq’s Sunni tribes when the Shia dominated government began punitive measures against the Sunni minority. And with the professional military leadership from Saddam’s old guard and Obama’s withdrawal of US forces (despite all his military and intelligence peoples advice) the new Iraqi army was in no position to resist them, going so far that two entire Divisions (25,000 troops) abandoned all their equipment (even their uniforms) and ran away.
When ISIS captured Iraq’s Central Bank the got a windfall amounting to $5 Billion. They became the richest terrorist organization in history. You can buy a lot of equipment with 5 Billion and the illegal arms market don’t care who the buyer is as long as the money is good.
That article is a load of b*llox. It says who is fighting them yet just mentions the Yanks and their allies, they are dropping a few bombs but they are fighting nobody. The SAA, Hezbollah, Iranians, Iraqi militias, Kurds and a tiny number of Assads opponents are fighting them in the ground.
A lot of their weapons came from the wests arming of rebel groups to fight Assad and from the iraqi army units they defeated, which were also supplied by the west after saddam was defeated and the iraqi army was reorganised and re armed. This is what happens when other countries meddle in the affairs of unstable countries. The west largely has to shoulder the blame for the rise of Isis. Another article on the journal seems to be placing the blame at Assads brutal put down of the arab spring but isis was already on the rise in western iraq and just took advantage of the chaos of the syrian civil war. With russia now involved backing assad the west should forget about toppling assad and concentrate on working with the russians to conquer isis once and for all, they can then go about the problem of assad in a more dignified and effective way than arming every group it comes across thats willing to fight. Arming militants always comes back to bite you in the ar$e eventually
Monty..agreed,Iran is the most powerful Shi’a state and bitterly resents the fact that Saudi Arabia is custodian of Mecca,Medina etc…Islam’s holiest sites.
…”after the time of the prophet Muhammad’s death. Isis has resurrected the idea.”
A note to the author – FALSE – The caliphate went from the time of the false prophet Mohammed to the end of the First World War with the collapse of the Ottoman empire.
ISIS, Al Quaeda, Al Nusra and Muslim Brotherhood etc are all the same organisation cloaked with different brand names.
DH the Syrian civil war was on going about 2 years before ISIS got involved. And when they dodge so it was not only against the SAA but also against the Kurds, the FSA, and their former associates in AQ. By that time they had already over run large parts of Northern Iraq and had captured a lot of equipment that the West had given to the fledgling Iraqi army. Obama’s attitude was to arm the Iraqi army to the teeth and leave them to it, completely ignoring his own military and intelligence leaders. Something he has done time and time again.
The US UK and France have started ww3 All for an oil pipeline just fantastic. And now we have the US talking about war with Russia for the resources in the north pole.
Yes Anne I’m in agreement with you but the reason that I’m against such measures is because we all know the greatest abusers of civil liberties are democratically elected governments. that’s the reason we all need civil rights. yes these criminals use them to get around the law but my view is if the authorities did their jobs properly then there is enough legislation to combat these groups
Mick yes you’re right, thats what i was saying. That isis started in iraq and just took advantage of the chaotic civil war in syria to gain both territory and weapons that were supplied to the rebels by the west.Its never a good idea to arm rebels in these proxy wars because you end up looking down the barrel of your own guns. Same thing happened in afghanistan after the russians left, western supplied weapons turned on the west by the mujahideen
Most of their weapons came from Saddams armouries, those abandoned by the new Iraqi army and the illegal arms market. Remember ISIS captured 5 Billion Dollars in Cash when they took the Iraqi central bank in Mosul. Added to that they are getting income from selling oil to the Assad regime and other Black Market forces and are taxing all those living in the areas that they occupy. Black Market Arms dealers will sell to anyone as long as the price is right.
Take all the ISIS’s Heavy Armour and artillery. It’s all Russian surplus. There is a huge market for cheap ex-Soviet/weapons that flooded the arms market after the fall of the Soviet Union. So ISIS has very little need for the West to arm them.
The insidious influence of American Jewry on US foreign politics means that Iran is being threatened by both the US and Israel because they want to join the Nuclear Club to protect their borders from the Sunni hordes (ISIS) in surrounding states like Saudia Arabia.
Mick the west has already armed them , inadvertantly maybe but armed them none the less. Most of the weapons stolen from the iraqi army were paid for by the US, and its been widely reported that most of the sophisticated weaponry paid for by the US that was supposed to arm the more moderate rebel groups fighting Assad has ended up in the hands of isis. This is the folly of arming militants in this part of the world. Its never worked before and it doesnt work now. The only winners are the military complex that manufacture weapons and i might add whose interest lies in perpetual war
The US made them and armed them and are still arming the. Sometimes saudi will arm them with US and English and Israeli made weapons. The Paris massacre didn’t stop the US to stop arming them but it’s continued. The worst the situation and the more land grab.
The scary thing about IS is there goals and objectives. This isn’t like IRA, ETA or PLO looking for something…they don’t want freedom or territory or the release of prisoners, they will not stop until the entire world is one Islam state. They want to destroy and kill western civilisation. Bombing and assassinating them just seems to make them stronger
Attaturk the founder of modern Turkey dealt ruthlessly with the religious fundamentalists in his nation.
Time to deal out the same cards to the Sunni fanatics and their Mullahs.
However, Saudia Arabia stands in the way of such a course of action.
The Saudis are currently pumping out cheap oil to destabilise countries like Iran and the US fracking industry.
IS remind me of a quote in The Dark Knight “Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”
Wouldn’t be jumping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone in a hurry. We all saw Tony Blair do that with Bush after 9/11 in his persuit of invisible weapons of mass destruction. Best thing Ireland can do is keep the head down. Trust none of them. Include the yanks in that. Wouldn’t be smart for this minnow to go swimming with the Sharks. Too much greed, dishonesty and corruption. Karma can be an awful thing.
Well practice what you preach then mr Hoffman. Up off your ar$e so and get fighting in the Middle East. Or maybe you prefer that other people do the fighting while you voice brave and heroic comments on the Internet? Yeah that’s what I thought. Your attitude is no better than the crooked foreign policies that caused this mess in the first instance. There will always be armchair morons like you willing send young men to their deaths in the name of bravery. That’s the real shame
Also how come these guys were unknown up until about a year ago and now all of a sudden they are public enemy number one and apparently control large parts of syria and Iraq?how can they apparently come from nowhere to being the biggest threat to the west civilisation since the last bunch of extremists al-queda? Also how are they in Iraq? I thought the whole point of invading Iraq was to ensure these sort of people would no longer be a threat to the west? But the most important question is how can you write an article about the origin of IS without answering any of these seemingly obvious questions?
Conor…the territory that DAESH now occupy was effectively rendered defenceless by the west….Iraq by the withdrawal of the US and replacement by ineffective Shi’a conscripts and in Syria by SAA’s retreat caused by the myriad of headhacking Wahabi jihadi and mercenary gangs financed and supplied by Turkey,Saudi,the US etc.DAESH exploited the vacuum.
Jochim. It was Obama that prematurely withdrew US forces from Iraq. All his senior military and intelligence leaders warned him not to but he chose to ignore them has he has done from the first day of his Presidency. Obama will only listen to a close group of advisors and has shown is utter disdain for his Military and Intelligence services on many occasions.
But if you want to look for the seed of modern terrorism you have to look not at the US but Russia. Russia gave birth to what we understand today as modern terrorism. During the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s the KGB armed, trained and financed terrorist organizations around the world. It formented anti Western sentiment amid Arab communities across the Middle East and Africa. And it was the Russian invasion of Afghanistan that gave rise to the modern Islamist movement. People like to blame the West for meddling in the Middle East but either don’t know about, forgot about or deliberately choose ignore Russian meddling. It was Russia that armed and supported Saddam. It was Russia that armed and supported Gadaffi when he was arming half the worlds terrorists. It is Russian weapons that are most commonly found in most third world conflicts and amongst terrorist organizations. So when looking for the seeds of Islamic terrorism you should look at who began it all.
Niall. Saddam was always Russia’s man. Look at the army under Saddam. All their weapons were Russian, their Officer Corp was trained by Russian Officers. In the Iran/Iraq war the US took the attitude that Saddam was the lesser of the two evils and so supported him with intelligence.
Your crediting George Bush with too much intelligence .. The post-reagan era neocon cabal had the plan for middle east chaos contructed well before 911 and bush.. google PNAC
FFS,as if we can give a clear answer as to who ISIS are.Who really knows who ‘created’ them.Its a damn murky world over in the Middle East.Dont forget those ‘Irish tennis players’ who killed the top Hamas leader in Dubai a few years ago,cough cough.
I feel a Terminator quote coming on: “That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”
They come from the same stable as other Islamic culture, where people get their heads cut off for exercising free speech and where women are chattels rather than equals. The West & Russia armed these barbarians so now they will reap the whirlwind and try to destroy us. There is no neutrality in this world any more, we need to know who our friends are and stand shoulder to shoulder.
it is all good to know about these morons and what they want, who is still funding them?
How come they were left untouched for this long that they are creating panic in the world?
They should have been eradicated long before like.
According to John Kerry Quatar fund ISIS also They also fund HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood all Sunni organisations For a little country with a population if 800000 they are right little busybodies
I think most Muslims left to sort out their own problems without wealthy self interest groups interfering in their affairs would probably do just fine Donk. There’s such a thing as cause and effect at play here, it’s just always us the normal proles on the street who get the brunt of the payback
Your deep molten hatred of the US has blinded you to reality Sean Yes the US are no angles in the middle east but the sectarian hatred between Sunni and Shia has been around for a thousand years Islam has from its inception conquered by the sword before the US existed
What nonsense. ISIS are just Wahabbists under a different name. The Wahabbists were a 19th century movement who brought a strict “prophet methodology” to the Arabian peninsula. The only difference between them and ISIS is the level of violence. The Wahabbists movement found ready adherents in Saudi Arabia but ISIS have declared war on Shi’a Muslims and declared them as apostates and want to eradicate them all. The idea that a US think thank created a strictly Quranic interpretation of Islam is utter nonsense.
Could you two geniuses point out to me where I said americans were to blame for extremist Islam. No, my point being that there will always be a shister who will jump in and take advantage of divisions between people for their own gain, it was the modus operandi of any empire building nation ever, divide and rule..
And Donk don’t assume I’m anti American because im anti unbridled capitalist greed, the two are not necessarily the same.. there are plenty of admirable Americans
Saudi Arabia and Turkey have a lot to answer for. Turkeys gave all the crazies free passage into Syria. Saudi’s either officially or not are funding Islamic groups in Syria. Israel is delighted to see Syria falling apart as long as no side comes out a strong winner. And the unfortunate Syrian people are suffering.
https://youtu.be/o6kdi1UXxhY
Thats a great video.
Only Israel benefits when America funds terrorism and regime change.
Some day it may come back to haunt them-as it has in France this week.
The people should take an interest in what their politicians are up to, in the Middle East.
The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.”
Terrorism doesn’t pay unless you are Al-Bagdhari & are wearing a Rolex in most of your photos, the leaders of Isis isil don’t give a f**k about holy land or the prophet or any other crap like that, it all boils down to one thing like every other war in the world: MONEY
There’s no money in peace
MEN WHO WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO KILL AND RAPE CHILDREN AND WOMEN.
At the start in Syria Assad fuel them by his acts of cruelty and torture, this then created a tit for tat situation and rape was a tool for Assads army, after the rapes of children and women, the women were murdered by having them bleed to death after having their breasts cut off. They have become the people they hate???
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Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 181 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 80 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 114 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 120 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 53 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 67 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 38 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 126 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 129 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 98 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 70 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 122 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 109 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
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