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They aren't trying to sell you anything. They are selling you to others. They are selling you to not just advertisers but selling your profile to companies tha

They aren't trying to sell you anything. They are selling you to others. They are selling you to not just advertisers but selling your profile to companies that are able to use your profiled information to make their own decisions about things. It's not just about advertisements. Imagine if you didn't serve a single advertisement and instead bought profiling information about people. You could use that profile information to make business or political decisions regardless of whether an advertisement was sold. You could influence politics because you "know" your target audience. Say, for example, the US presidential election or Brexit. Those are just the most high profile places for your profile to be used without ever having presenting advertisement to you. Net neutrality is another one.

hiram112 9y ago
I've been (down voted) for saying this before: it is not just ads that they are selling. The big money is going to be selling your profile to everyone, including insurers - health, auto, home, etc. Good luck getting a good deal when they know how much you drink and the food you eat. To the government - eventually that guaranteed Social Security and 401k will be means tested, and it appears you're spending on luxuries that disqualify you.the possibilities are endless. And I know for a fact that there are more than a few HN readers who work for companies mediating this data.
- Bromskloss 9y ago
  > Good luck getting a good deal when they know how much you drink and the food you eat. That would go both ways, right? With the extra information, insurance companies would be _more_ keen on insuring those who behave in a way that makes insurance payouts less likely.
  - hiram112 9y ago
    You'd think, right? I wouldn't hold my breath, though. My car insurance was set at about $900/year by my insurer for 5 or 6 years. In that time, they never once lowered the price, even though I had one or two tickets expire, had a perfect driving record during that time, and my car lost about half its value due to aging. Only when I finally decided to get a new quote from my credit union - about $400 for the year (less than half I'd been paying for years) - did my current insurer offer to reduce to the close to that price which is what I would have been paying had I been a new customer with my current record. In other words, corporations will find a way to extract the maximum possible from everyone.

hiram112 9y ago

I've been (down voted) for saying this before: it is not just ads that they are selling. The big money is going to be selling your profile to everyone, including insurers - health, auto, home, etc. Good luck getting a good deal when they know how much you drink and the food you eat. To the government - eventually that guaranteed Social Security and 401k will be means tested, and it appears you're spending on luxuries that disqualify you.the possibilities are endless. And I know for a fact that there are more than a few HN readers who work for companies mediating this data.

Bromskloss 9y ago
> Good luck getting a good deal when they know how much you drink and the food you eat. That would go both ways, right? With the extra information, insurance companies would be _more_ keen on insuring those who behave in a way that makes insurance payouts less likely.
- hiram112 9y ago
  You'd think, right? I wouldn't hold my breath, though. My car insurance was set at about $900/year by my insurer for 5 or 6 years. In that time, they never once lowered the price, even though I had one or two tickets expire, had a perfect driving record during that time, and my car lost about half its value due to aging. Only when I finally decided to get a new quote from my credit union - about $400 for the year (less than half I'd been paying for years) - did my current insurer offer to reduce to the close to that price which is what I would have been paying had I been a new customer with my current record. In other words, corporations will find a way to extract the maximum possible from everyone.