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Ok, I'll add to that a couple more details. Many ecommerce companies sell your purchase history to third parties as well, just like the credit card companies.

Ok, I'll add to that a couple more details. Many ecommerce companies sell your purchase history to third parties as well, just like the credit card companies. This allows others to market to you more directly. There is at least one company that has built technology that will monitor most all these purchases, monitor the IP's from them and the browser profile to identify a specific machine that you use. Then when you go to work, or are on your mobile they also will tag that traffic as you too. They have gotten so good they can serve ads that are relevant to your wife if she happens to be on your computer surfing the web for shoes say, but serve you different ads if you are on the same computer. They use data feeds from many sources, but ecommerce transactions, credit card transactions and companies like acxiom that let them match those with real people, incomes and household details make it very powerful. In marketing we use Axiom and others a lot, their data used to be more vague and educated guesses about people. Now though, they have gotten it down pretty well, including how many animals, kids and your income/debt etc. They collect data from tax collectors offices, county records, city records, plus companies that will sell transaction data and other pieces so they can get a full picture. They of course work with Equifax, TransUnion etc too so they can build a whole economic profile on a person. These companies are also what allow marketers to send you an email about their product/company after all you have done is visited their website. You don't have to enter anything or click on anything, but they will know who you are, who you work for and whether you fit their market profile in general. Poorly done it is extremely creepy, correctly done it can be an amazing conversion booster.

speeder 11y ago
To me, well done, is still creepy. I am from Brazil, and I am openly dissident of our government, and here assassinations (And other unpleasant things) DO happen to dissidents (example: in the last year a couple anti-government bloggers all in the same region where "murdered", the police claim it was just normal murder, but the coincidence is too great to be just normal murder, they were obviously assassinated). What happen, if some day the government decide to assassinate me? They can just waltz in with a market company, offer a lot of money (or if they refuse, a lot of pain), get my data, and know all that stuff about me. Then, they can do with me, what they did with Toninho and Celso Daniel: intercept them on the street, kill them, and pretend it was a robbery gone wrong. Toninho case was very obvious: He was intercepted while fetching some suits he had bought before, using the tech you mentioned, assassins would know for certain that he was there, since they could know he would need to eventually fetch the suits, and that once inside the building, you could intercept him at the exit, indeed as he was exiting the shopping mall that had the clothing store, another car drove by, shot him (not "at his direction", but at him, directly, Toninho died instantly because of direct hits), and sped away. The police claimed it was a random incident where random criminals randomly passing by got pissed off at him cutting them off in the traffic and killed him, beside all that being unlikely, Toninho had some days earlier said to the press that should "something happen" to him, stuff were already set for his successor. So what matters to me is: How I don't get tracked, unless I go "off grid survivalist style" ?
- davismwfl 11y ago
  Your concern is totally valid, I luckily do not live in a country that I feel I need to be on guard at the level you do but it still doesn't mean I appreciate all the data collection either. That said, there are things people can do with companies like Acxiom to help reduce the data collection. At least in the US (not sure overseas) if you as a consumer submit a request to be removed from their lists they must honor your request and remove you, many US states have strict laws about this and I believe the Federal laws also have strict restrictions. The catch 22 to this is that you can wind up back in the collection at a later date because of activity you take or because of a timeout period (from what I understand). You can read about Acxiom's policy and opt-out here: https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx As a point too, you may check out the data collection from Acxiom, as I believe they actively collect and use data in your home country, as they do in many counties. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion all also work in the US and overseas and collect/sell vast amounts of data on individuals. The very fact they collect so much data does make people (including me) nervous because I personally feel they do not take security of the data nearly serious enough, as recent security issues have shown at most of them. But that I guess is a different issue/post.

speeder 11y ago

To me, well done, is still creepy. I am from Brazil, and I am openly dissident of our government, and here assassinations (And other unpleasant things) DO happen to dissidents (example: in the last year a couple anti-government bloggers all in the same region where "murdered", the police claim it was just normal murder, but the coincidence is too great to be just normal murder, they were obviously assassinated). What happen, if some day the government decide to assassinate me? They can just waltz in with a market company, offer a lot of money (or if they refuse, a lot of pain), get my data, and know all that stuff about me. Then, they can do with me, what they did with Toninho and Celso Daniel: intercept them on the street, kill them, and pretend it was a robbery gone wrong. Toninho case was very obvious: He was intercepted while fetching some suits he had bought before, using the tech you mentioned, assassins would know for certain that he was there, since they could know he would need to eventually fetch the suits, and that once inside the building, you could intercept him at the exit, indeed as he was exiting the shopping mall that had the clothing store, another car drove by, shot him (not "at his direction", but at him, directly, Toninho died instantly because of direct hits), and sped away. The police claimed it was a random incident where random criminals randomly passing by got pissed off at him cutting them off in the traffic and killed him, beside all that being unlikely, Toninho had some days earlier said to the press that should "something happen" to him, stuff were already set for his successor. So what matters to me is: How I don't get tracked, unless I go "off grid survivalist style" ?

davismwfl 11y ago
Your concern is totally valid, I luckily do not live in a country that I feel I need to be on guard at the level you do but it still doesn't mean I appreciate all the data collection either. That said, there are things people can do with companies like Acxiom to help reduce the data collection. At least in the US (not sure overseas) if you as a consumer submit a request to be removed from their lists they must honor your request and remove you, many US states have strict laws about this and I believe the Federal laws also have strict restrictions. The catch 22 to this is that you can wind up back in the collection at a later date because of activity you take or because of a timeout period (from what I understand). You can read about Acxiom's policy and opt-out here: https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx https://isapps.acxiom.com/optout/optout.aspx As a point too, you may check out the data collection from Acxiom, as I believe they actively collect and use data in your home country, as they do in many counties. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion all also work in the US and overseas and collect/sell vast amounts of data on individuals. The very fact they collect so much data does make people (including me) nervous because I personally feel they do not take security of the data nearly serious enough, as recent security issues have shown at most of them. But that I guess is a different issue/post.