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If by "you", you mean aggregated data about you in lieu of cash payment. Google/Facebook/etc are not selling your data, they are not selling you, they are sell

If by "you", you mean aggregated data about you in lieu of cash payment. Google/Facebook/etc are not selling your data, they are not selling you, they are selling access to you via advertisers, more specifically, they are selling access to people who like certain things and who live in certain areas who have certain demographic profiles. If you're curious about this, go sign up for an Adwords account and see how the targeting works - what you see there is the limit of what any advertiser using Google sees about its users. Facebook is much the same. Get it right. Any ad-backed company of note does not "sell your data" and characterizing it as such is so divorced from reality as to be a blatant, willful lie.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- Karunamon 11y ago
  Any inferring is being done by the ad company, not the advertiser. And framing this as discrimination (a loaded term nowadays) is just more hyperbole, IMO. People of different races, orientations, religions etc are very likely to view different things as relevant, and at the end of the day, relevance is what any advertising company's mission in life is. Best of all, it's all supposed to be data driven, so those nasty human biases don't even creep in. If demographic X clicks on a thing more than demographic Y, at the end of the day, that is what matters, and we can sidestep any discussions of bias, regardless if the demographic under consideration is young/old, black/white, atheist/religious, rich/poor, male/female.
notahacker 11y ago
Not only would "selling your data" as opposed to access to you or a per click basis be a less profitable business model, it'd also be strictly illegal in many jurisdictions without explicit opt-in permission.
- belorn 11y ago
  In those countries that it is illegal to sell personal data, what kind of abuse are they intending to prevent? Any abuse which is possible by having direct access to private data is also possible to do by going through a intermediate which does the data mining for you.
  - notahacker 11y ago
    If I've opted out of having my details passed on to third parties, I only have to opt out of receiving communications once. And since they're also not allowed to give the data away and can get into trouble for allowing it to be stolen or accidentally shared, my name and personal details are also somewhat less likely to crop up in an embarrassing public "people who subscribe to this service" list...
    - belorn 11y ago
      Do you mean like Ashley Madison hack? Nothing in the ad-backed company model prevent someone sending a fake advertisement to the demographic who are likely involved in adultery. After that you publish a "people who subscribe to this service are ..." list based on who clicked on it. The only question if someone could do this with Facebook/Google is if they provides targeted advertisement to that demographic or if you have to provide your own algorithm and combine different targeted advertisements with the available demographics.
      - notahacker 11y ago
        There is no way whatsoever that you're getting my name or email address by some third party serving your ad to me, unless I happen to end up voluntarily filling those details in on your web property. Which I probably won't do, unless you have something I actually want, and I trust you. That's the difference. That and the fact that if you publish your "the small fraction of people on $EMBARRASSINGTHIRDPARTYSERVICE's mailing list which clicked through to my landing page and filled out my webform" list without me having opted to allow you to share the information you'll find yourself in a courtroom.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Karunamon 11y ago
Any inferring is being done by the ad company, not the advertiser. And framing this as discrimination (a loaded term nowadays) is just more hyperbole, IMO. People of different races, orientations, religions etc are very likely to view different things as relevant, and at the end of the day, relevance is what any advertising company's mission in life is. Best of all, it's all supposed to be data driven, so those nasty human biases don't even creep in. If demographic X clicks on a thing more than demographic Y, at the end of the day, that is what matters, and we can sidestep any discussions of bias, regardless if the demographic under consideration is young/old, black/white, atheist/religious, rich/poor, male/female.

notahacker 11y ago

Not only would "selling your data" as opposed to access to you or a per click basis be a less profitable business model, it'd also be strictly illegal in many jurisdictions without explicit opt-in permission.

belorn 11y ago
In those countries that it is illegal to sell personal data, what kind of abuse are they intending to prevent? Any abuse which is possible by having direct access to private data is also possible to do by going through a intermediate which does the data mining for you.
- notahacker 11y ago
  If I've opted out of having my details passed on to third parties, I only have to opt out of receiving communications once. And since they're also not allowed to give the data away and can get into trouble for allowing it to be stolen or accidentally shared, my name and personal details are also somewhat less likely to crop up in an embarrassing public "people who subscribe to this service" list...
  - belorn 11y ago
    Do you mean like Ashley Madison hack? Nothing in the ad-backed company model prevent someone sending a fake advertisement to the demographic who are likely involved in adultery. After that you publish a "people who subscribe to this service are ..." list based on who clicked on it. The only question if someone could do this with Facebook/Google is if they provides targeted advertisement to that demographic or if you have to provide your own algorithm and combine different targeted advertisements with the available demographics.
    - notahacker 11y ago
      There is no way whatsoever that you're getting my name or email address by some third party serving your ad to me, unless I happen to end up voluntarily filling those details in on your web property. Which I probably won't do, unless you have something I actually want, and I trust you. That's the difference. That and the fact that if you publish your "the small fraction of people on $EMBARRASSINGTHIRDPARTYSERVICE's mailing list which clicked through to my landing page and filled out my webform" list without me having opted to allow you to share the information you'll find yourself in a courtroom.