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Stop Datamining Me
- gaff33 8y agoSeeing this list and its mix of Email / Phone / Fax / Web systems - and this is only for 50 companies - makes you realise why GDPR-like regulations are needed!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mnw21cam 8y agoIt has always rather irked me that seemingly the only way to stop people from datamining you is to give them more information. Many web pages even specifically complain about third party cookies being disabled in the web browser, saying that they can't possibly honour my preference unless I switch it back on again. I'd much rather just not hand out the information in the first place.
- Tobani 8y agoThere needs to be a mechanism to tweak the signal-to-noise ratio. Either 1) stop interact with them and send 0 signal, or 2) have a browser plugin that just provides random interaction on a webpage and increase the the noise. The expensive targeting machines they've built become much less useful.
- infinityplus1 8y agoAdNauseam is a Firefox extension which clicks ads automatically.
- mrweasel 8y agoWhile that seems like a fun idea, I'm not a fan of the permissions the extension requires.
- Karunamon 8y agoIt seems sketchy at first glance, but then you pair that with what the addon is actually doing: - Access your data for all websites (anything that interacts with ads, including blockers, will need this) - Download files and read and modify the browser’s download history (these two items are single entitlement in firefox, and provides the ability for AN to store the images for ads it clicks on. You get this nice mosaic view of all the ads its clicked, as well as a running total how much click revenue you've burned) - Monitor extension usage and manage themes (checks if any other incompatible ad blockers installed and notifies the users) - Access browser tabs (I'm not 100% sure what this one does, but you've already given it full access to everything on every page anyways.) - Access browser activity during navigation (Killing popups) The addon itself is GPL3, so I think there's a very low likelihood of shenanigans here. Also compare and contrast with uBlock Origin: - Access your data for all websites - Read and modify privacy settings - Access browser tabs - Access browser activity during navigation
- SilasX 8y agoMozilla screams bloody murder about security and careless users, but then forces you to choose between "no extensions" and "extensions with unlimited permissions to see everything you do".
- monetus 8y agoI've been told that without more people doing it, fuzzing your browser like that makes you more identifiable. Know if that's true?
- dotancohen 8y agoThink of it like fingerprints (it is actually called fingerprinting). Every unique setting you make is a point that could identify you, even settings supposedly intended to increase your privacy. Much like adding a big burn mark to your fingerprint to actual fingerprint to mask its curves, now that big burn mark could be used to identify you even more than the original curves could.
- Bartweiss 8y agoI'm always surprised at how pervasive this is. Most frequently, I see it where you describe - with sites demanding that I sign in/up and disable all tracking prevention before they'll make even a basic effort to let me disable tracking. But one of the ugliest cases is DMCA takedowns. For big companies, they're quick and easy and usually succeed even when they're completely unjustified. But for unincorporated people, issuing the takedown means providing your name and other personal information to the hosting site. And given that DMCA takedowns are the most efficient way to handle things like sketchy sites hosting stolen nude photos, it's basically a requirement to furnish them with the identity of the person pictured...
- wjnc 8y agoSo would anyone pay for a service like this that acts like an attorney and actively contacts companies for insight into the information they store on you and requests for removal? Included in the service would be class-action suits and other litigative measures. We could introduce a free tier to find out if X companies store anything and a service if you want to clean up. Like legal insurance but then only for data.
- acjohnson55 8y agoI don't think I'd subscribe, but I'd probably pay about $100 for my dossier and a universal opt out.
- blacksmith_tb 8y agoIsn't the problem that the ad network(s) would have to extract a fairly high price from us to sell such an opt-out? More than they'd estimate they could make from us... I'd bet it would have to be calculated based on what they've got on you already (so in that sense having been using an adblocker might make you less valuable and thus cheaper for you buy your opt-out).
- JohnFen 8y agoI would pay a third party opt-out enforcement service, but I would not give a single thin dime to actual advertising companies in exchange for an opt-out, nor would I pay a third party service if they're going to pay such advertisers.
- acjohnson55 8y agoBut a lot of them have opt-outs already, which are presumably free. I think we're talking about the just the convenience cost of exercising all of them on my behalf.
- nawtacawp 8y agoJust from personal experience I’ve spent time opting out of these collections in the past. To include, people search websites only to find my information resurface months later. I think this may take constant monitoring. I’m not sure the mechinism that is used for data to be added after asking for opt out/deletion
- medlazik 8y agoDilemma: In order to remove my info I need to give them my info
- tpxl 8y agoLoads javascript from google-analytics.com and facebook.com. Please do, in fact, stop datamining me.
- mothsonasloth 8y agoUse a browser addon like Ublock or a physical network device like PiHole to block trackers
- ealhad 8y agoI think you missed the point.
- mothsonasloth 8y agoNo, you are responsible ultimately for what information you reveal or don't. It's all good having some big behemoth like the EU laying the smackdown with GDPR for companies and sites but that shouldn't mean you let your guard down and expect all sites to follow the rules. I don't need to care about trackers because I am blocking them pro-actively.
- Majestic121 8y agoI think you mean ultimately here, penultimately means last except for one (so that there is someone that is even more responsible than you for the data you reveal or not)
- mothsonasloth 8y agoEdited, thanks
- tpxl 8y agoI am the GP poster. I have NoScript installed and temporarily allowed domains because I wanted to see if a website about stopping mining mines its users. However, I agree with you, people need to stop downloading random (potentially malicious) javascript and executing it. Getting your info stolen is someone elses fault, but your responsibility.
- corobo 8y agoThe absolute irony of this site's privacy policy. > Service Providers. We work with third parties who provide services including but not limited to data analysis, order fulfillment, list enhancement and other administrative services. We may disclose personal information to such third parties for the purpose of enabling these third parties to provide services to us. Such services may include: marketing distribution, email list management services, advertising, certain product functionalities, customer support, web hosting, customer data management and enhancement, fulfillment services (e.g., companies that fill product orders or coordinate mailings), research and surveys, data analysis and email service. https://www.stopdatamining.me/privacy-policy/ https://www.stopdatamining.me/privacy-policy/
- unfamiliar 8y agoThey're mining that no-data-mining market. That's a good market!
- tjoff 8y agoIt really must be. Because for some reason all big companies are hell bent on tricking even the 0.001% power users that actually care by constantly overriding options and nagging people until they accidentally click the wrong thing that one time. I have no idea what they expect to gain by infuriating that group.
- froasty 8y agoThe anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market. They're very bright to do that.
- IronCoderXYZ 8y agoThey're the best, absolutely tremendous work, amazing people. Make privacy great again!
- mattnewton 8y agohttps://youtu.be/tHEOGrkhDp0 https://youtu.be/tHEOGrkhDp0 ? (profanity warning)
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoSo do we have any proof that these sites actually honor the opt-out requests and don't simply add the information we had to provide to them to their dossier? Profile: Doe, John New Details: Hates data-mining.
- tivert 8y ago> So do we have any proof that these sites actually honor the opt-out requests and don't simply add the information we had to provide to them to their dossier? I don't know, especially for scummy people search websites. However, I've requested a lot of disclosure reports and opted out of a lot of stuff, and I don't think I've volunteered anything the dataminer probably didn't already know. The real big names like Lexis Nexus and the credit bureaus have their tentacles in everything, so it'd be very difficult to hide your address, telephone number, and property information from them. The requests that require emails or phone numbers have never rejected throwaway accounts or non-personal phones numbers I have access to. I think they mostly ask for them to impede bulk opt outs.
- Antonio123123 8y agoReminds me of those public "do not call" lists. Guess what - they get called more often.
- josho 8y agoThe Canadian Do Not Call law actually publishes your number for political parties, pollsters, and charities giving them approval to call you. So, yes, being on the do not call list will actually increase the number of calls you receive.
- elliekelly 8y agoI can't for the life of me understand why we don't yet have dual-consent calling. Your call should only go through on my phone if you have my number and I've added yours to my address book. Otherwise you should go straight to voicemail.
- optimusclimb 8y agoEmergency situations. "Sir, we found your wallet...", etc., etc.
- overcast 8y agoSo leave a voicemail. No one answers their phones anymore anyhow, because it's 99% of the time a spammer.
- JohnFen 8y agoThat's what I do. If a call comes into my phone from a number that isn't in my address book, it just gets sent straight to voicemail. My phone won't even ring. The only reason I don't just drop the call completely is to cover situations where a someone not in my address book might be calling me for something important. That has never actually happened yet, though.
- soared 8y agoThere are apps that do this.
- octosphere 8y agoDoesn't opting out cause a Streisand Effect?[1]. I mean, if you go out of your way to hide something it makes you even more interesting and you stand out. My own strategy for not having data collected on me is to compartmentalize and have various contextual identities across different services and never cross contaminate identities and never have all my personal info in one centralized location that makes it easier for the likes of Acxiom Corporation to profile me. I call it identity 'sharding'. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
- soared 8y agoYour strategy doesn't work, FYI. If you have /ever/ used the same device or network they are linked. If you've ever used a credit card across your 'shards', if you've ever logged into a service (especially gmail/fb) accross 'shards' then your identities are linked. You'd need entirely separate devices, networks, names, browsing habits, social accounts, etc. You might've lowered their confidence, but that has nearly zero effect. Cross-device graphs are exceptionally advanced.. all the machine learning/etc that gets discussed on hn is used to beat users like you. Oracle is one of many vendors who do this. https://blogs.oracle.com/oracledatacloud/crosswise-questions-answered https://blogs.oracle.com/oracledatacloud/crosswise-questions... https://go.oracle.com/LP=57841 https://go.oracle.com/LP=57841
- alkonaut 8y agoSomeone make a form that submits to all at once
- soared 8y agohttp://optout.aboutads.info/?c=3&lang=en http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=3&lang=en http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1 http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1
- dcendum 8y agoThese just opt you out of browser options, cookies, etc. I'd like to see a tool that actually removes real PII from these co's databases. Know of a tool around that does it?
- casefields 8y agoWe need to update the fair credit reporting act with a data retention and opt out section for online activities. The key would be making the violations punitive enough that only crooks, and not these supposedly respectable corporations, would be willing to abuse.
- gketuma 8y agoSo Equifax is still out here data mining folks huh? :(
- ryanisnan 8y agoAlso the first site’s opt out is a total joke. Provide all your sensitive PII so they can remove it from their system. No thanks.
- wintorez 8y agoNice try!
- sys_64738 8y agoWho is this person and what do they have to hide?
- sixothree 8y agoI'm sick of just knowing what "kind" of data people have about. I (expletive) want to know what people know about me.
- soared 8y agoHere you go: https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/ https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/
- GrinningFool 8y agoWhat is this, exactly? The "Take Control of your Data" call to action takes me to list of 'how to opt out from company X' which exists in plenty of other places, and I'd have to submit them myself. Nothing that goes into data usage, etc. Then there's the privacy policy as others have pointed out, and the analytics/facebook scripts. There's no functionality or service provided that I can find. The blog seems to be retweets and noise. Not sure how this got voted onto on the front page, it doesn't seem to be a legitimate thing.
- soared 8y agoOr just use the bulk opt-outs provided by the advertising industry organizations. The first is webchoices (the blue triangle you see in the corner of some ads, which allows you to report ads, see how you were targeted, etc.) and the second is the NAI (Network advertising initiative, a non-profit pushing self-regulation for advertisers.) http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=3&lang=en http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=3&lang=en http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1 http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1 You can also see what types of data Oracle has on you. This doesn't include all of the companies they own though. https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/ https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/
- bpchaps 8y agoLast I tried, half of those don't work.. :/
- soared 8y agoThere are some rules to follow if you really want them to work. Opt out on all your browsers, opt out again after clearing cookies, etc. > You may still receive other types of online advertising from participating companies, and these companies may still collect information for other purposes consistent with the DAAC Principles. > https://youradchoices.ca/faq/#cookies-and-opt-out https://youradchoices.ca/faq/#cookies-and-opt-out
- jcfrei 8y agoBefore I can get to the opt-out page it loads a "Webchoices Browser Check" and it fails because I block third-party cookies? Is this a joke?
- techbio 8y agoIf you scroll to the bottom you'll see that this is a lead generator for attorneys, who are notorious for using "advanced" advertising techniques. They bring in a hot lead, like this site seems well designed to do, and write a letter for $X+.00, and maybe repeat as whack-a-mole goes.
- thosakwe 8y agoWhat if there were a browser plugin that would generate large amounts of fake data, and sent that to ads/analytics/trackers whenever they popped up, in addition to preventing the actual user's data from being sent?
- pseudoanonymity 8y agoAdNauseam Clicking ads so you don't have to https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/
- awolf 8y agoThe Equifax link leads to a form where you submit your social security number and birthdate. Cool.