Your Data Footprint Is Affecting Your Life In Ways You Can't Even Imagine (fastcoexist.com) 191
An anonymous reader cites the following excerpts from a FastCoExist article: Innocently clicking on a link results in ad targeting that's hard to shake and our purchases quickly reveal more information than we intend, such as the infamous example of Target knowing a woman is pregnant before she's told her family -- and before she's purchased any baby products. [...] Predictions about you are deeply shaping your life in ways of which you are probably blissfully unaware. Predictions about you (and millions of other strangers) are starting to deeply shape your life. Your career, your love life, major decisions about your health and well-being, and even if you end up in jail, are now being governed in no small part by the digital bread crumbs you've left behind -- many of which you don't even know you've dropped in the first place.
Possible solution (Score:2, Informative)
Only buy routine items online. For anything that requires a bit of discretion, buy it at a physical store with cash.
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a physical store with cash
What are you trying to hide, citizen? You have been flagged for closer surveillance.
(Already not having a "social media profile" is seen as a bit deviant and can easily hurt your career prospects, and use of encrypted communications is considered suspicious [alternet.org]. It's not going to be long at this rate).
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and use of encrypted communications is considered suspicious [alternet.org].
Man...that must be hell for all those people using online banking, email, or any other SSL/TLS encrypted communications stream.
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Already not having a "social media profile" is seen as a bit deviant and can easily hurt your career prospects [...]
I have yet to see that happen in the IT field. The electronic trail under my legal name ended in the 1990's. The only thing I have in terms of social media is a LinkedIn profile.
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When I was younger, I was taught that you don't use your real name online, it is basic security. Not sure why that would be a negative in any job, but I can't say I was ever asked for my Facebook or whatever social media account in any job interview.
I did have a C level at a small company I worked for friend me on Facebook, but that was because we were friendly towards each other, not to get all the juice about me. I don't actually use Facebook, I just have an account because it is expected in many circle
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There have been districts with >100% voter turn out as recently as last election, but I guess the dead voting is normal to you.
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There have been districts with >100% voter turn out as recently as last election, but I guess the dead voting is normal to you.
feel free to post an example, but meanwhile: "Q: Is it true that there were more votes than voters in Wood County, Ohio, and St. Lucie County, Fla., and that Obama lost every state with photo ID laws?
A: No. A viral email that makes those claims is bogus. It fabricates Ohio and Florida results. Also, Obama won four of the 11 states with photo ID laws." http://www.factcheck.org/2013/... [factcheck.org]
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I cannot attest for the accuracy as I didn't look into any of the sources:
http://www.redstate.com/aarong... [redstate.com]
https://www.commentarymagazine... [commentarymagazine.com]
http://lwv.org/blog/georgia-ex... [lwv.org] (indicates it was people listed in the wrong district/going to the wrong district)
https://www.truthorfiction.com... [truthorfiction.com] (some claims true, most false, but the true ones are very interesting)
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There's less evidence to support significant voter fraud than there is to support significant election fraud and voter suppression.
I hope one of the things Donald Trump does when he's in office is to start implementing the electoral system that America deserves, not this farce
Hah! I'm sure he'd tell you he will, even though it won't be under his purview. In fact, he might even think he's telling the truth (for a change) in that case because he probably does not know the office of the president doesn't have the authority over that.
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What about advanced electoral forensics and analysis?
This is the only part of your rant that deserves recognition. Electronic voting machines without a paper trail are not to be trusted. With the shenanigans that have gone on since at least 2000, we need to be double checking the vote tallies and results.
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A throwback to the horse-and-buggy era.
That's funny. The U.S. Constitution was written 240 years ago when the horse-and-buggy were still popular.
I hope one of the things Donald Trump does when he's in office is to start implementing the electoral system that America deserves, not this farce.
A new electoral system would have to be approved by two-thirds of Congress and two-thirds of the states. Good luck with that. The Constitution was designed to be difficult to update. The 27th amendment (congressional salaries), the last amendment approved, took over 202 years to get approval.
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We have all this technology to do advanced tracking, consumer prediction, ad-targeting, etc. Advanced. Hyper-advanced.
Yet - watching the primary elections occurring on America - and all elections for that matter - our electoral system is a fucking farce. A complete fucking farce. A throwback to the horse-and-buggy era.
Where is the biometric voter verification? What about advanced electoral forensics and analysis?
Its this way because - because of the massive farce - because the corrupt mostly Democrat-controlled political machines across the country want it that way. They want no voter verification. They want the 20 million illegals who flooded into the country to vote. They don't care about ballot-box stuffing in the precinct centers in the 'hood where the voter turnouts would otherwise be around 10%.
Its time to call BS on America's electoral system.
We have all this advanced technology, and *this* is the voting system we have?!? AYFKM?
I hope one of the things Donald Trump does when he's in office is to start implementing the electoral system that America deserves, not this farce.
even fox news disagrees.
"Several states adopted new laws last year requiring that people show a photo ID when they come to vote even though the kind of election fraud that the laws are intended to stamp out is rare."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/24/voter-id-laws-target-rarely-occurring-voter-fraud.html
"Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according
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And your Slashdot profile...
Which isn't associated with my legal name.
Re:Possible solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Only buy routine items online. For anything that requires a bit of discretion, buy it at a physical store with cash.
I wouldn't be surprised if the FBI and NSA start requiring retailers to log cash purchases on their systems.
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If it's an electronic register then it is capable of tracking inventory in real time, and keeping records on each sale and how it was funded. If it is a chain store then it probably connects to the mothership either continuously or at the end of each day. It won't however know *who* payed cash that day until facial recognition gets a little better. All the stores are loaded with cameras already
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Facebook, Apple, and Google beg to differ. All three have facial recognition that can identify you reliably than most random human beings could. And that's to say nothing of governments.
Do you know where all the cameras in the stores are these days? Did you catch the pinhole cameras at the registers? Or above the doorways in the motion sensors? And what about Meraki or other retail systems tracking your wifi, cellular, NFC, and bluetooth emitters and correlating that with facial data?
There is no more p
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It's like how you can't uninvent a new tech, something that Our Wealthier Betters have often gnashed and wailed about in futility, when it costs them profits - if their kicking and screaming didn't work, what chance do we have?
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Well obviously they log it anyway for marketing and inventory/accounting purposes
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Only buy routine items online. For anything that requires a bit of discretion, buy it at a physical store with cash.
I wouldn't be surprised if the FBI and NSA start requiring retailers to log cash purchases on their systems.
Fortunately very illegal in my countries (Plural, both the one I came from and the one I'm living in). A merchant is not allowed to tie purchasing data to payment data. One of the secondary purposes of store cards is to tie purchase data to a person (the primary purpose is to keep you going back to that store).
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Bank transfers that are $10k or greater are logged.
Several transactions close to that are flagged as suspicious.
Re: Possible solution (Score:1)
All bank transactions are logged. Transactions over $10K are scrutinized. But don't be fooled into thinking many small transactions will get you by the filters. There are people out there smarter than thou.
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All bank transactions are logged. Transactions over $10K are scrutinized. But don't be fooled into thinking many small transactions will get you by the filters. There are people out there smarter than thou.
Scene from cop show (can't remember which) last season: cops open briefcase, it's full of money. Cop A counts it: "Damn, Only $9,990, doesn't violate the law". Cop B pulls out wallet, tosses a $20 into the briefcase: 'Count it again'.
Re:Possible solution (Score:4, Informative)
That $10K limit was set a very long time ago, when $10K might have bought a house in the burbs. It keeps getting more intrusive as time goes on, but technology keeps making it easier to do the transaction checking and logging.
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The same would be done by govs for for reading lists, buying of products and services.
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Were you asked for your email address or phone number when paying cash recently? Ever?
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Maybe once, but never when I've paid cash.
my home depot does.
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"Were you asked for your email address or phone number when paying cash recently?"
Some retailer is going to buy the dead husk of Radio Shack just so they can do that.
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Some retailer is going to buy the dead husk of Radio Shack just so they can do that.
That was last year's news.
Besides the trademark, the hedge fund also acquired the retailer's customer data, which was reported to include more than 65 million customer names and addresses, along with 13 million email addresses. Phone numbers and other information may be part of the deal.
http://www.fierceretail.com/story/standard-general-acquires-radioshacks-intellectual-property-customer-data-s/2015-05-13 [fierceretail.com]
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Are you a member of any loyalty card schemes? You don't need to be asked if you use on of those when paying with cash or otherwise.
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Time, Newsweek, the Lifesavers, and the second time bomb from the right.
Re: Possible solution (Score:5, Funny)
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You've struck on a huge part of the problem. The system is good for spotting overall trends buy can be comically inaccurate when it comes to individuals. Like when you buy gifts for your friends that are pregnant, gay, or love shoes.
Cash is no longer a guarantee of anonymity (Score:2)
Only buy routine items online. For anything that requires a bit of discretion, buy it at a physical store with cash.
Almost all stores have in-store security cameras, and facial recognition software has reached the point where, unless you wear a ski mask when you shop, you can almost certainly be identified. Add to that parking lot cameras that can see your license plates and you might as well give up trying to be anonymous. To make matters worse, as people buy more and more online, brick-and-mortar stores are dropping like flies. Just try to find that book you want to buy at a major bookstore near you. Wait, what maj
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Please cite as I am unaware that any county has figured out how to go fully cashless.
Re:Cash is no longer a guarantee of anonymity (Score:4, Informative)
Please cite as I am unaware that any county has figured out how to go fully cashless.
Sweden [nytimes.com] is almost cashless now, and plans to be fully cashless in the next few years. There are others on the way [totalpayments.org], too.
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Please cite as I am unaware that any county has figured out how to go fully cashless.
Sweden [nytimes.com] is almost cashless now, and plans to be fully cashless in the next few years. There are others on the way [totalpayments.org], too.
So they'll serve as a warning to the rest. If Sweden truly becomes cashless (which is something I highly doubt) then you'll see another form of currency replace it, probably from one of it's neighbours.
Also Canada is a complete misnomer. They recently switched to polymer banknotes and didn't anticipate the extended life expectancy of the new notes. Australia did the same thing and had to cut back on production in the late 90's after fully switching over to polymer notes.
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For many places cash is a convenience item for the few only. Pretty much every government that has imposed transaction fee free debit transactions has made huge strides towards being cash free.
In Australia I never carried more than a $20 note and that usually only got spent when I was eating at restaurants which didn't split bills. In the Netherlands they're a full step further with several places not accepting cash at all any more, and many places offering "pin only" checkouts. Belgium, Finland, Ireland an
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Please cite as I am unaware that any county has figured out how to go fully cashless.
bitcoinsylvania
Re:Possible solution (Score:5, Interesting)
They can tell a lot about you by routine purchases, especially if they look for patterns of change. I've read about the Target case; it isn't just obvious things like buying prenatal vitamins and maternity clothes; a sudden switch in preference for unscented products is common with the hormonal changes pregnant women experience.
The prediction doesn't have to be perfect to be uncannily accurate.
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That is true. But Target actually hired a mathematician to design the program and measure its impact. They have the data to show it works quite well.
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Or be seen buying into libertarian philosophies, survivalist literature, self-sufficiency, reading lists about the book of Revelation, big government, constitutional rights and civil liberties, contractors and mass surveillance.
Give the digital bait for something to track, then change up the online buying habits
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These "ads" you speak of, "shaping my life" (Score:3)
They appear where? Oh, wait, *that's* what the ABP icon in my toolbar is saying - its been there so long I'd kinda gotten used to it. I must have become ad-blocker blind, if such a convoluted concept exists.
Not just ads (Score:5, Insightful)
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"To opt out, they make you mail a paper form"
I don't for a moment believe they actually honor that request.
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Of course, Facebook tracks everything
Reminder: You're a dope if you use Facebook, or any other 'social media' platform. It's like smoking: If you're doing it, you can't in any way claim you didn't know it was a bad idea, but you're doing it anyway. These are not survival traits.
Re:Not just ads (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, Facebook tracks everything
Reminder: You're a dope if you use Facebook, or any other 'social media' platform. It's like smoking: If you're doing it, you can't in any way claim you didn't know it was a bad idea, but you're doing it anyway. These are not survival traits.
Reminder: the fact that you don't find the costs associated with using a service to be worth the benefits doesn't mean that people who do understand that tradeoff, and find it worthwhile, are "dope[s]."
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Reminder: Prefacing your argument with "Reminder" is a shitty way to make an argument.
The circle is now complete.
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Mostly true, but there is one exception.
Specifically, if you are PAYING Facebook to advertise to other people, then using it may not be stupid. They are not big on letting people/company pay them unless someone from the company already has a Facebook account.
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Or, we're just getting more of a "small town lifestyle" in the big cities now. One major complaint I've heard from small towners is that everybody knows your business... well, with data trails, that is true all over now, not just in Mayberry RFD sized communities.
Private Matters (Score:2)
True. That's one aspect. Privacy is always a balance between self and community. But what do you reveal, to whom, and who has the power to decide...
Your point is made by Janna Malamud Smith, Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life
That's the book PJ recommended when she stopped Groklaw, I picked it up because of that, and wasn't disappointed. Very readable, well argued, and a couple good thoughts on private vs. public
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If I ever get time to read again... the thing about "online sharing" is that it is so new that people don't have much experience with how it works. Most small town residents know that if you show up to the local WalMart with skank of the week hanging on your arm, word will spread - but these same folks will post drunk selfies from places that normally aren't very exposed to the public...
Give it 20 years, people will learn. Meanwhile, repuationmenders.com has a booming service business.
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How is it even legal for your credit card company to "share" your information with other companies? In the EU it's outlawed by data protection rules. US citizens should demand the same protection!
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Advertisements aren't just animated GIFs in the sidebar of web pages. Damn near any site with "personalized" content in any form is prone to machinations of advertisers. Even /. filters content displayed on your main page depending on your settings.
More and more websites are filtering content automatically based on advertiser profiles they have built for every user. Even the searches you perform are tracked and used to tailor results to sites you have visited or searches you've performed in the past.
This be
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According to the law of force and counterforce, the tail and the dog wag each other. Your behaviour affects what information you see which affects your behaviour, just like now (you watc
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I thought something similar when I skimmed the headline. I mean, I don't bother using an adblocker, but I also ignore and don't click on banner ads. Then I decided to dig deeper and read the NY Times article in the "Target knowing a woman is pregnant" link. That was a very illuminating article and showed me just how clever companies have gotten about analyzing data and creating marketings strategies around the data.
Companies like Target can now do intelligent marketing targeted towards you even if you bl
Block all trackers (Score:2)
I use plugins like Ghostery or similar to block this tracking, and of course an adblocker to block every ad that gets through anyway. On this page alone I block Doubleclick and 2 Google ad widgets.
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Recommend disconnect over ghostery
one is open source, other is owned by ad agency
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I prefer Privacy Badger over Disconnect, Ghostery and others, as the EFF are behind it.
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Does that include...
...? I only ask because you only mentioned Google+Doubleclick.
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Oh how I wish we only had to worry about websites using cookies to track us. It's becoming pretty difficult to avoid being electronically surveilled in today's society.
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IP address assigned by network providerNot much you can do about that one, it's the way an IP network works.
Vehicle license plateGrass-roots campaign to stop automated tracking?
OnStar equipped vehicleDon't have it in your car. Or physically hack as much of it out of the vehicle as you can. At least find the antennas it's using.
Credit/debit card numberPay cash for as many things as you can.
Transit card numberPay cash for the bus/train?
Cellphone's IMEI numberTurn off your phone when you're not actively using it. At least you minimize the tracking that way.
Face/biometricsGrass-roots campaign to stop automated tracking? Trying to defeat this just draws more attention unfortunately.
store loyalty card numberDon't accept/use them, ever. Whether they show it to you or not, there has to be some sort of agreement that you're implicitly agreeing to by accepting the card, and agreement that allows them to collect more data than the law allows otherwise. Never use them or have them at all.
That's the best advice I can give you, friend.
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I still haven't figured out the ebay bucks rewards program what do they get in return that they don't already get by me logging in?
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You mean a trial of pebbles? (Score:2)
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Breadcrumbs make for lousy trail markers so you're putting pebbles on trial? What's wrong with you?
Scammers (Score:1)
Re:Scammers (Score:4, Interesting)
"And yet....we can't seem to track down and prosecute those scumbags who try to scam old people and other tech novices on the Internet."
In fact, if the feds are unable to track down ransomware scammers, I submit that the whole surveillance problem is a mirage. If surveillance tech had the super-powers everyone imagines they have, that would be both a simple problem, and would be a way of making the public feel better about surveillance.
Surveillance Capitalism (Score:2)
Adam Smith, the "father of economics" and one of the original theorists of capitalism, believed that capitalism worked because each participant in the marketplace had an approximately equal capacity with respect to other participants to understand the value which he was exchanging with others. Some people are more clever, or have better memories, or are simply more industrious, but on the whole we are all human beings, and our ability to know more than another has an upper bound.
That's not true of machine
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I think most economists realize that information asymmetry leads to market distortions, which is partly why stuff like insider trading is actually illegal and the presence of a number of labeling or disclosure laws that require sellers to provide some kinds of information to buyers. At least here, if you've had to call an exterminator in the past year you have to disclose that to a buyer, for example.
I'm always dismayed, though, at how often lack of transparency is actually allowed through complex billing
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Suddenlink cable refuses to show their speeds on the mailers they send out.
Both dish and directtv have contract terms that are longer than their with contract rates eg: $50/mo for the first 2 years with 3 year contract then just $399/mo thereafter.
Att's (landline and broadband cable maybe diff can't get theirs here) promotional rates last for the full length of the contract term as do verizon's cellular plans.
The city however is very clear with their plans they list the price and speeds on their flyers and
Relevant ads better than non-relevant ones (Score:1)
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Just wait for the GOP to kill ACA with no replace (Score:1)
And then the jail part may be very trun. You have X and the ER does not cover that. Try jail.
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But you're okay with paying for that person to be housed, fed, and receive medical services in the jail? I'm pretty sure just subsidizing the health care is cheaper than all that...
Amazon is convinced I need a business account. (Score:2)
Amazon keeps trying to get me to switch to a amazon business account.
Who knows might be useful but I still don't see how its would be a improvement over prime.
Paypal sends me an offer for paypal credit at least once a month. No I don't want an extra 6 months to pay.
And ebay is now sending me ad's for crap I don't want that's not even related to anything i've looked at what's this new mystery deal thing? Oh lookie it's a roomba what would I do with that?
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If they want to show up "relevant" ads they need to give us a way to fix their stupid mistakes. Just because I happened to search for something once does not mean I'm interested in buying it.
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Just wait a couple of years and you'll be forced to buy it.
You break it, you pay it will become you saw it, you buy it.
About that Target pregnancy thing (Score:1)
I mean, before big data and big stores, the same clerk might have seen you buy the pregnancy test and then the next day see you buy prenatal vitamins. If it was a small town, even if it wasn't the same cashie
Way Different (Score:2, Informative)
The huge difference is the global reach of the corporations and their infinite permanent memory. The old clerk may have seen you purchase a couple of items and may have put two and two together. But, they could never see what you were looking at everywhere you went in town, the next town, on vacation in Italy... They could never remember everything you bought from your babies conception to his college graduation and beyond.
The scale, the permanency, the ease of access, the inability to threaten the clerk sh
Re:About that Target pregnancy thing (Score:4, Insightful)
Except Target didn't keep it a secret.
You see, Target has done their market research. They found that the birth of child is the ideal time to shape shopping habits - if a husband and wife shopped at Target for a few basic essentials, then went elsewhere for clothes, groceries and other things before a birth, after a birth, they are highly suggestible to change their shopping habits. So Target wants to find those that are pregnant and send them coupons for essentials they may need with the hopes of attracting them to shop more stuff at Target - get more of their shopping dollars with a family who may be pressed for time and unable to do their usual shopping rounds.
The problem was, the daughter was making those kind of purchases, and the father wondered why Target was sending her coupons for pregnancy products. Target's analytics found her profile was basically that of a pregnant woman. So the father confronted Target management asking them why they're sending pregnancy-related coupons to their daughter (who you know, is very virtuous and wouldn't have a child out of wedlock, etc. etc. etc).
Said father later revealed their daughter was a teenage parent a couple of weeks later.
Target didn't tell them, but she fit the profile, and the parents didn't know until Target basically revealed it to them.
Re:About that Target pregnancy thing (Score:4, Insightful)
"The lady obviously knows, and it's her secret to tell, so what's the big deal with Target keeping the secret?"
The thing that bothers a lot of people isn't that target figured something out, it is that target demonstrably isn't "keeping" the secret -- they sent her pregnancy-related things that revealed the secret to her parents before she wanted them to (because fairly predictably, her parents were in the same house, and thus saw things that showed up in the mail for her).
I don't mind starbucks knowing how much coffee I consume. I do very much mind when they sell that information to an insurance company that starts calculating my life insurance or health insurance rates. If someone is stalking me, I really don't want them to be able to buy from starbucks the information about which starbucks I use when (from which you can derive roughly where I work and my schedule).
Lots of people browse for porn; it is fine if the provider keeps that info, but when they start selling to the local newspaper a list of people in your town organized by kink, that gets kind of disturbing. Profitable for the porn company perhaps, but most people find that sort of commercialization of data obnoxious.
Advertisers are demonstrably tracking and sharing a lot of information that I didn't give them. When a social network that I don't have an account on starts recommending me as a "person you might know" to coworkers, that says that they've gathered information about me and my job that I never gave them, which they are now sharing with others. I really don't like that.
You are correct that we've always had gossips around that might notice something about me and share it with others; that doesn't mean we liked them, or that we think that their behavior should be institutionalized in every corner of our lives.
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Small towns suck. Especially for non-conformists. Talk to a religious/racial minority from a small town. Talk to a gay person. Talk to a Democrat in a town of Republicans (or vice versa).
Clickbait headline (Score:1)
Your Data Footprint Is Affecting Your Life In Ways You Can't Even Imagine
Headline contains two "your"s and one "you." Clickbait probability: 98%
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Yes, but is it deeply shaping my life? That's not clear.
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It disappoints me that I had to scroll down this far. The headline and the summary are absolutely fucking useless.
Big data isn't the problem (Score:2)
Rather, it's how it is used
The assumption that correlation implies causation is a common mistake. Real analysis, with a going in assumption the data is incomplete and inaccurate and thus any conclusions must be viewed as suspect is what's needed. Being able to keep competing hypothesis in one's mind and not blindly believing in the data is key to using it properly. Simply accepting the results because it's what the computer said is a pathetic to ruin. It's simply an extension of the cashier who says " Yes,
And? (Score:3)
I don't lend much credibility to this - it sounds far too ominous and sensationalist. I mean, how can I take serious a claim that "They" whoever they are, can "Deeply Affect" everybody's life, when I on a daily basis see how ineptly information is beings handled by nearly all players? These people don't seem able to find their own backsides with two hands and a guide dog. Apart from that - I assume we are talking (yet again) about the overhyped "Incredible Powers of Advertising"? People are perfectly able to ignore the crap; I have spam filters that work well, I have adblockers, noscript and others, and I have a recycling bin by my front door for printed adverts, which I discard out of hand, un-opened.
I think this kind of stories are a relic of the sizties or seventies, when advertisers actually believed in their imaginings. The trend now is that they are struggling, not least because companies are losing faith in the value. Hopefully it will go completely away soon.
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I've read the first article before, it's actually a great one. But it's from 2012, get a clue.
That would likely be why the summery (and the story) refer to it as infamous (def: well known for some bad quality or deed.), indicating that most people have heard of/read/or are aware of the story and view the incident in a negative light.