5 ms·

I understand the discomfort that comes with having vast corporate entities in possession of private personal information but as a user I'm somewhat confused abo

I understand the discomfort that comes with having vast corporate entities in possession of private personal information but as a user I'm somewhat confused about not exactly it affects my day to day life, especially since I insist on using adblock on every Internet connected device. Perhap this book will reveal to me some dangers that I am not currently aware of. I'll try to keep an eye out for it and read it if it can.

i_feel_great 8y ago
I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends only. I have never posted a photo of myself on Facebook. I have adblock and noscript running. I use an alias and not my real name. But Facebook suggested I tagged some faces on some photos my family shared. They were all of me. Not my brothers or other people also in the photos. But me. Of course there is a lot of context shared by family and friends, but how Facebook could get the right faces baffles me. How does it affect my daily life? I don't know yet.
arkh 8y ago
Let's say you want to change things one day in your country: you get into politics or unionize. Too bad, your opponent has a back-channel access to data about you which could be used against you if made public. Or some law is passed and suddenly some of your old activity is made illegal: you're now on a watchlist, let's hope you can stop your cinnamon addiction. Let's be more day-to-day: all your data is sold to insurance companies. Where you go, how fast you go, what kind of food you eat, your gym attendance etc.
- matz1 8y ago
  >Let's say you want to change things one day in your country: you get into politics or unionize Not day to day situation >Or some law is passed and suddenly some of your old activity is made illegal Then the law need to be changed so that past activity that is now illegal shouldn't affect you. >all your data is sold to insurance companies Ok so what's the danger? If anything I could get maybe cheaper insurance.
- iamkroot 8y ago
  That's a hypothetical situation, we could talk about those all day. And history shows us the government doesn't really need access to my browsing history to oppress me if that's what they want to do. Re: insurance: Is that happening right now? I am not aware of any reports that indicate that is currently occurring.
DoubleGlazing 8y ago
Adblock only helps a little. For example, unless you use a VPN, your ISP knows every site you visit. If you have a debit card your bank knows where you spend your money. Retailers can figure out a lot about you from your spending habits e.g. Target figuring out when someone was pregnant. Facial recognition is growing in use to track people in stores and malls. We are still in the early days of commercial data analysis. Online retailers and ad brokers (e.g. Google) have been the trailblazers. But it will spread. Imagine a combination of facial recognition and data analysis being used in the real world to serve you custom billboard ads or to allow sales people to remind you that you probably need to buy new shoes. Lets move beyond sales in to really creepy territory. Want to intimidate someone? Get hold as much of their marketing data as you can, it'll probably be on sale from some data broker. If its not on sale, bribing someone will probably get you what you want. Now let your target know that you know where they shop, what they buy, what websites they visit and maybe they have a drink problem they want to keep hidden. If you think that what legitimate businesses can do with your data is bad, imagine what criminals could do.
- iamkroot 8y ago
  Sure, Amazon likely knows an enormous amount about me just through analysis of my purchase history. This is certainly creepy and off-putting but as I mentioned above, I'm not sure how it affects me. How is my life being made worse by this collection of data points? The same goes for your hypotheticals about billboards and facial recognition. Very creepy and I certainly don't want to live in that world but at the end of the day, I'm not being harmed by it. Invoking fear of criminals and underworld behavior is an unconvincing argument. If someone with those resources seeks to harm me, they're always going to be able to find a way to do it. We can stand about and talk about "what if's" all day, I'm interested in how my life is being affected today.
  - DoubleGlazing 8y ago
    Surely a company using the analysis of your behaviour to effectively manipulate and trick you in to making decisions that might not be in your best interests is in itself harmful? These companies that do this do not care about your interests, they care only about their bottom line.

i_feel_great 8y ago

I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends only. I have never posted a photo of myself on Facebook. I have adblock and noscript running. I use an alias and not my real name. But Facebook suggested I tagged some faces on some photos my family shared. They were all of me. Not my brothers or other people also in the photos. But me. Of course there is a lot of context shared by family and friends, but how Facebook could get the right faces baffles me. How does it affect my daily life? I don't know yet.

arkh 8y ago

Let's say you want to change things one day in your country: you get into politics or unionize. Too bad, your opponent has a back-channel access to data about you which could be used against you if made public. Or some law is passed and suddenly some of your old activity is made illegal: you're now on a watchlist, let's hope you can stop your cinnamon addiction. Let's be more day-to-day: all your data is sold to insurance companies. Where you go, how fast you go, what kind of food you eat, your gym attendance etc.

matz1 8y ago
>Let's say you want to change things one day in your country: you get into politics or unionize Not day to day situation >Or some law is passed and suddenly some of your old activity is made illegal Then the law need to be changed so that past activity that is now illegal shouldn't affect you. >all your data is sold to insurance companies Ok so what's the danger? If anything I could get maybe cheaper insurance.
iamkroot 8y ago
That's a hypothetical situation, we could talk about those all day. And history shows us the government doesn't really need access to my browsing history to oppress me if that's what they want to do. Re: insurance: Is that happening right now? I am not aware of any reports that indicate that is currently occurring.

DoubleGlazing 8y ago

Adblock only helps a little. For example, unless you use a VPN, your ISP knows every site you visit. If you have a debit card your bank knows where you spend your money. Retailers can figure out a lot about you from your spending habits e.g. Target figuring out when someone was pregnant. Facial recognition is growing in use to track people in stores and malls. We are still in the early days of commercial data analysis. Online retailers and ad brokers (e.g. Google) have been the trailblazers. But it will spread. Imagine a combination of facial recognition and data analysis being used in the real world to serve you custom billboard ads or to allow sales people to remind you that you probably need to buy new shoes. Lets move beyond sales in to really creepy territory. Want to intimidate someone? Get hold as much of their marketing data as you can, it'll probably be on sale from some data broker. If its not on sale, bribing someone will probably get you what you want. Now let your target know that you know where they shop, what they buy, what websites they visit and maybe they have a drink problem they want to keep hidden. If you think that what legitimate businesses can do with your data is bad, imagine what criminals could do.

iamkroot 8y ago
Sure, Amazon likely knows an enormous amount about me just through analysis of my purchase history. This is certainly creepy and off-putting but as I mentioned above, I'm not sure how it affects me. How is my life being made worse by this collection of data points? The same goes for your hypotheticals about billboards and facial recognition. Very creepy and I certainly don't want to live in that world but at the end of the day, I'm not being harmed by it. Invoking fear of criminals and underworld behavior is an unconvincing argument. If someone with those resources seeks to harm me, they're always going to be able to find a way to do it. We can stand about and talk about "what if's" all day, I'm interested in how my life is being affected today.
- DoubleGlazing 8y ago
  Surely a company using the analysis of your behaviour to effectively manipulate and trick you in to making decisions that might not be in your best interests is in itself harmful? These companies that do this do not care about your interests, they care only about their bottom line.