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from the I-wonder-if-they-track-sales-of-tin-foil? dept.
http://www.cio.com/article/2977027/intel-reveals-big-datas-dirty-little-secret.html
The article is entitled "Intel reveals big data's dirty little secret" but I read it a little bit differently.
From the article: "Companies are spending billions on tools and engineering to analyse big data, though many are hampered by one little problem: they still don't know what to do with all the data they collect."
This means that, of all the egregious breaches of personal privacy that companies regularly perform (the Target-knows-you're-pregnant-when-your-parents-don't story comes to mind), they have still only scratched the surface of making sense of your information, and using it effectively. Which means that, as Big Data gets people who actually know what they're doing, the more frightening the possibilities become, which is probably only a matter of time.
How would you feel about getting a bunch of targeted spam from divorce lawyers because your wife/husband's personal details were in the big Ashley Madison data leak, before you even heard about it? What if you were the guy who got drunk and put a profile up one time after a big fight but never followed up on it? This is why I don't have a Facebook account.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Saturday August 29 2015, @06:00PM
"How would you feel about getting a bunch of targeted spam from divorce lawyers because your wife/husband's personal details were in the big Ashley Madison data leak, before you even heard about it?"
1) Spam is illegal in my country.
2) Spam from a lawyer would be clamped down upon so heavily they'd never lawyer again.
3) Not only is spam illegal, using personal details that you've obtained illegally is also illegal. Any lawyer that touched them would be struck off in seconds.
Come live in a world with sensible laws that take account of these things rather than making up hypothetical scenarios that are just plain stupid.
P.S. Read up on the Data Protection Act and various EU counterparts while you are there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @07:15PM
Spam is the least of the concerns. It was just used as a visceral example that everyone is familiar with. Abuses (or intended uses depending on your POV) will be far more subtle. And none of the source data will be illegally collected, one way or another you will waive the collection.
I'm all for the european style approach like data self-determination [dataprotection.eu] - but power always subverts, without 'eternal vigilance' you will lose control of those protections.
(Score: 1) by dingus on Saturday August 29 2015, @09:23PM
You EU folks have it so much better than us in so many ways. It's like your government(s) actually cares about its people. I'm jealous.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:09PM
Good to hear a positive note on this. Are you in the Netherlands per chance? Those of us seriously considering emigration will thank you for valuable information like that to guide the selection of their destination. Cheers!
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:14AM
Your points (2) and (3) are valid, but I think it's silly to argue (1). It doesn't really matter if it's illegal in your country. The law doesn't do a damn thing to stop a crimes, especially when it comes to Things Lawyers Would Prefer You Not Do With Your Computer. Example: the DMCA hasn't done a damn thing to stop people from sharing media over the internet. The notion that it will is hopelessly naive, and not solely for the reasons that (1) any country's laws don't apply universally (well, unless that country is the USA), (2) such laws are very difficult to enforce anyway in an age of VPNs, Tor, crytocurrency, etc. and (3) stupid people will do stupid things anyways, and other stupid people will reward them for it - the incentive and beneficial outcome can't be eliminated, so it will continue to occur.
In short, there's no such thing as a legal solution to a technical problem. There are legal disincentives, but while the violations are so simple to commit and difficult to enforce, they really are a silly response to these kinds of problems.
And for the record, extortionist tactics are already happening to users of Ashely Madison: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/08/exposed-ashley-madison-members-targeted-by-scammers-and-extortionists/ [arstechnica.com] tl;dr version: extortionists threaten email users and threaten them to pay up, otherwise they will tell friends and relatives (curated from social media) that they had an account on the site. Obviously it's illegal, but that's not stopping anyone.