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They know how you browse the internet, your favorite TV shows and where you shop and travel.
Data collected by internet and media companies is a powerful tool, and the big mergers planned by AT&T with Time Warner and Verizon with Yahoo offer those firms more data that can be used to target consumers with content and advertising.
Privacy advocates say the prospect of firms using all that online and offline data without safeguards could be alarming.
"Twenty-first century media is all about the ability to gather information on a single individual regardless of where they are—whether they are using mobile phone or watching TV or in a grocery store," said Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy rights group.
The $85 billion deal unveiled Saturday would combine AT&T, one of the largest mobile telecom and residential internet operators, with Time Warner, the media-entertainment giant with powerful brands including the Warner Bros. studio, HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network and a major online game studio.
[...] The tie-up comes as the Federal Communications Commission is set to consider privacy rules for internet service providers like AT&T and Verizon.
The rules would require consumers to "opt in" to allow companies to combine data from different sources to deliver ads and content.
"The FCC privacy rule is critical to ensuring there are safeguards," Chester said. "Right now there are no safeguards."
[...] John Verdi of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank, said that in both the AT&T-Time Warner and Verizon-Yahoo deals, "data is a key asset" but that the companies should respect promises made when the data was collected.
"Users are typically concerned when data is collected about them and used in unexpected ways," Verdi said.
"It's important for companies to keep the promises they made after the merged entity moves forward to maintain the trust of consumers."
Expect a raft of new tech job openings with "experience with Big Data" in the descriptions, to help the new mega companies mine it properly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @07:24PM
> I'm wondering what the point of mentioning it so vaguely is.
Its because it is not a household name and nobody other than fanbois really cares what it is, knowing the industry is sufficient for the ideas the article is discussing. Failure to cater to your narrow interests is not a conspiracy, its a fact of life for everybody with narrow interests.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @04:15PM
reactionary comment mod == "-1 Douchebag"