6 ms·
Cracking the code
- jasonlotito 16y ago> The Wall Street Journal was able to decode 26 of them. It's not like it's a secret or anything. They act like this chart is something they've discovered.
- nowarninglabel 16y agoIt does seem to be counter to their mission of "Safe onlining" http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/2010/09/29/safe-onlining/ http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/2010/09/29/safe-onlining/
- danfitch 16y agohttp://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/ http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/ Some interesting blog entries by rapleaf.com
- illamint 16y agoYou can opt out and see what info RapLeaf has on you here: https://www.rapleaf.com/people https://www.rapleaf.com/people I'm amazed, but not necessarily surprised, that they could pin down my income level, location, age, etc. from just my email address.
- conanite 16y agoI tried signing up, only to be told Could not complete registration: The captcha was not correct. Only one problem: there was no captcha. Maybe adblock is working too hard ...
- mrcharles 16y agoI got this twice, even seeing the captcha. Maybe I'm a robot. Hey....
- maukdaddy 16y agoI registered and verified, only to see this: Rapleaf Encountered a Problem. Whoops... we've encountered a small problem. Please try again soon! Sorry for the inconvenience. Why do I feel like I've just been taken?
- blaines 16y agoYou can opt out of other networks in bulk here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
- brown9-2 16y agoPerhaps Rapleaf is not as powerful as they sound, since they incorrectly think I am about 40 years older than I actually am.
- nlco 16y agoit appears they dont have anything on me (no cookie/javascript blocking, just vanilla chrome) and I do browse extensively. Anyone know why this might be happening?
- mrcharles 16y agoIt seems to me that some of what WSJ shows here goes against RapLeaf's privacy policy. Specifically: "We don't collect or work with sensitive data on children, health or medical conditions, sexual preferences, financial account information, or religious beliefs." The WSJ article shows that they are collecting religious beliefs, income, children, and detailed data on how you spend your money. Seems to me that they are violating this both in spirit and in specific wording.
- eli 16y agoMight depend on how you define "sensitive."
- jasonlotito 16y agoYour confusing interest with actual data. For example, they don't collect religious beliefs. However, they can collect your interest in Christianity. They don't collect health information, but they can collect your interest in Healthy Eating. They don't collect financial account information, but they do collect general financial information (for example, they don't collect CC data, but do know your general pay grade. Finally, they qualify everything by saying they don't collect sensitive data, and from the information provided, they don't.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoSounds like doublespeak - how is an "interest" in religeon different from religeous belief?
- joelhooks 16y agoI don't believe in a God, but am interested in religion and how it affects the world I live in. I see a definite separation between interest and belief.
- mrcharles 16y agoSure but you are sticking your head in the sand if you think that that doesn't accurately represent the religious angle of people. If their data says they are interested in the bible, christianity, prayer groups, or whatever, what's more likely, that they are intellectually curious and just doing research? Or that they are just christian?
- nohat 16y agoAt least RapLeaf is open enough to show this chart. You can edit your data, and opt out. Far from a perfect system, but let's be practical: nearly every other advertising system is doing exactly the same thing, just without telling you what they have. Some sort of an open advertising cookie seems like a good idea to me. Something that people can customise so that they'll see advertisements somewhat interesting to them.