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SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @10:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-await-the-shitstorm dept.

I'm about to give up.

On the one hand, I see countless people get loyalty cards and enjoy discounts on their purchases. They connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter. They use apps on android or apple smartphones to give them turn-by-turn directions, find out where their friends are, or find places of interest. Their e-mail is "in the cloud" where they can get to it from multiple places. They use services like dropbox to share files. They get their news on-line and read e-books. I could go on and on.

On the other hand, I see opportunities for tracking and profiling in every one of those activities. So much so that it seems like one would be under constant observation and surveillance. We are just data points to be sliced and diced and marketed to — a society of consumers rather than customers.

So, I've got a major "ick factor" knowing about these practices and yet I'm hard-pressed to explain any negative consequences to otherwise intelligent people. "I don't do anything that's THAT interesting." "I've done nothing wrong, so I don't worry about it." "I like getting the bonuses and discounts."

Yet, I see companies expend great amounts of money implementing tracking mechanisms such as cookies, super-cookies, clear gifs, as well as huge databases of purchases, travels, and interests. I don't believe they are doing this for purely philanthropic reasons.

In no particular order, I include these for consideration:

I use a variety of Addons while browsing the web using Pale Moon: a custom HOSTS file, Self-Destructing Cookies, Ad-Block Plus, Ghostery, NoScript, Better Privacy, Flashblock, and Ref Control. I have a firewall and use anti-virus products. "In real life" I prefer to use cash over charge cards for my purchases. I have no loyalty cards.

What say you Soylentils? Am I being unreasonably paranoid? Or not paranoid enough? What dangers, really, are there? Why not sign up for all those loyalty cards and social apps? What privacy protections do YOU use?

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:23PM (#182328)

    Things no one will tell you about if they happen. Your interest rate being higher due to some information the credit rating agency found about you which happens to be statistically highly correlated with doing dangerous activities (you yourself don't do those activities, but the statistics says you probably do; bad luck for you). Your health insurance being more expensive because there's this record of you buying large amounts of alcoholics (which you bought for a friend who was giving a big party — but that fact cannot be found in the database). The online shop showing you higher prices than it shows to the guy next door because their analysis suggests you've got money to spend, and tend to buy also higher-priced items. Another online shop omitting cheaper items on your search for exactly the same reason. You not getting some job because of that photo of you in front of a collection of beer bottles on your facebook page which the prospective employer found (from your visit of a beer bottle museum, but unfortunately he got the photo on a Google Image search, without the context).

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @12:54PM (#182339)

    > The online shop showing you higher prices than it shows to the guy next door because their analysis suggests you've got money to spend, and tend to buy also higher-priced items.

    FYI: On Orbitz, Mac Users Steered to Pricier Hotels [wsj.com]

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by The Archon V2.0 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:56PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:56PM (#182434)

    And because most of this data is kept in various aggregated databases with no oversight, there is absolutely no route for complaint or correction. Hypothetical:

    1) LazyCollector Inc gets you and your father conflated because you have the same name (plus or minus a "Jr.") and lived under the same roof a few years ago. When you move your new address just gets added as a second address on the combined entry.

    2) This year your dad has a heart attack and starts looking up info online, has to call a cardiac specialist regularly. LazyCollector buys his search history from the ISP, his cellphone metadata from the phone company. They note this and conclude rightly that the owner of the phone and PC had a heart attack, but affix it to the combined person in their database.

    3) LazyCollector sells info to HealthAggregator Ltd, a data service specializing in medical info, who strip out some of the irrelevant stuff and combine it with the address & other info they bought from BankingInfoCollector Inc. Now as far as HealthAggregator is concerned, the guy with your name who cashes the paychecks you earn has heart problems.

    4) Your health insurer bought from HealthAggregator and their actuaries see, via your banking info you had to give them when you signed up, that you have heart problems and suddenly start treating you like someone with heart problems. (And at your age, that's sign of severe problems.)

    Who do you complain to? You've never heard of HealthAggregator before and the guy at the insurer likely hasn't either; even if he did he doesn't know they buy info from someone like LazyCollector who half-assed it, and HealthAggregator obviously isn't going to tell you their suppliers or even give you the time of day - you're not their customer. And while you're getting a needless electrocardiogram done to prove to your insurer that your heart is fine, LazyCollector is selling that same database to 10 other companies, a few of which you might have future dealings with. And no matter how many times it crops up, you'll never find out it's coming from LazyCollector because they are buried under multiple levels of reselling and abstraction.

    OK, maybe the scenario's a bit obnoxious, but here's a question: Have you ever heard of Acxiom? Because they've heard of you.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @06:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @06:09PM (#182507)

      In the past it happens.

      Buying first house. My father, brothers and I all lived within 60 miles. Our first names all began with the same letter. My father and I have the same name, but I have middle name and he does not. All of us (7 in all) wives' had variations of similar names. My wife and my father shared the same brith date.

      When the bank pulled my credit reports (they tried once per system) each was over 100 pages long! After going through, the first 3 pages and noting to who each item belonged. I gave it back to them to do the work. Via it found relatives that also lived in area that we did not.

      To this day using Anywho. I am 1 of 3 people in the us with my first and last names. So I am rare but look at the mess it can cause. My brothers continue with first initial thing for there kids.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @11:31PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2015, @11:31PM (#182705)

        All of us (7 in all) wives' had variations of similar names

        8-) Was there an avalanche involved in that? [wikipedia.org]

        .
        A quote I appreciate that was missing from the summary:
        "You have no privacy. Get over it."
          --Scott McNeely, CEO of Sun Microsystems, 1999
        Right on the facts, wrong on the attitude [wikipedia.org]

        -- gewg_

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @12:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @12:42AM (#182735)

        " I am J. Spartacus!"