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You seem to be talking about credit agencies though. It's orders of magnitude easier to browse the internet in incognito mode than it is to live without a cred

You seem to be talking about credit agencies though. It's orders of magnitude easier to browse the internet in incognito mode than it is to live without a credit card or to not have a credit report. There's only two credit card networks and three credit reporting agencies. Google and Facebook don't know exactly where you live but credit agencies do, and they also know your bank accounts, social security number, etc. Credit agencies openly sell their data, but Google and Facebook don't and never have. Google and Facebook don't actually have vast logs of everything you've ever done, they trash old logs after some period of time, and frankly most of is not useful to bother to do anything with to try to join it in the first place. But your credit card data and credit history lasts your whole life. We could put some regulations on personally identifiable information... except actually that exists already, and the credit agencies have been the ones that have been hopelessly reckless with that and somehow always get away with it.

lancesells 9y ago
If you use either Google and Facebook on your phone they do know where you live. Most likely they know where you work, how you get there, your voice (Google), your income, your demographic information, what websites you visit, what you buy, who your friends and family are and what you look like. Google and Facebook buy the data from those credit agencies and they resell that data to the highest bidder numerous times a day. Google and Facebook have far more data on anyone in the US than any credit agency ever will.
- nerfhammer 9y ago
  No, seriously, they don't sell personal data to the highest bidder. There is no such data sales product that they offer. It doesn't exist. They don't compile lists of web sites you visit and sell it to anyone. They don't keep vast logs of everything you've ever done because it's expensive to store and simply isn't worth anything, especially if it isn't recent. They do want to keep your age and gender and what city you live in, that sort of thing. They don't care what you look like. > Google and Facebook buy the data from those credit agencies No they freaking don't. Facebook barely makes one dollar per month per user. Google makes something like $2 per month per user. Credit reports cost on the order of $20 each. Do the math.

lancesells 9y ago

If you use either Google and Facebook on your phone they do know where you live. Most likely they know where you work, how you get there, your voice (Google), your income, your demographic information, what websites you visit, what you buy, who your friends and family are and what you look like. Google and Facebook buy the data from those credit agencies and they resell that data to the highest bidder numerous times a day. Google and Facebook have far more data on anyone in the US than any credit agency ever will.

nerfhammer 9y ago
No, seriously, they don't sell personal data to the highest bidder. There is no such data sales product that they offer. It doesn't exist. They don't compile lists of web sites you visit and sell it to anyone. They don't keep vast logs of everything you've ever done because it's expensive to store and simply isn't worth anything, especially if it isn't recent. They do want to keep your age and gender and what city you live in, that sort of thing. They don't care what you look like. > Google and Facebook buy the data from those credit agencies No they freaking don't. Facebook barely makes one dollar per month per user. Google makes something like $2 per month per user. Credit reports cost on the order of $20 each. Do the math.