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We should really work on making personal data transactions illegal. I can’t think of a single company that I would be happy to hear that they sold my data to th

by human 8y ago

We should really work on making personal data transactions illegal. I can’t think of a single company that I would be happy to hear that they sold my data to third-party. These companies provide no additonal benefits. Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy.

shawnz 8y ago
> These companies provide no additonal benefits. They provide safety for lenders, which allows those lenders to offer you cheaper prices. Is that worth it? Not sure personally, but I don't think it's fair to say that they are totally without benefit.
- inetknght 8y ago
  Safety for lenders... by allowing fraud to be cheaper than lending to real people? I'm afraid I don't understand your logic.
  - shawnz 8y ago
    I didn't say that Equifax was the ideal realization of what a credit bureau is supposed to be.
jstarfish 8y ago
> Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy. Don't be silly. The long arm of Equifax has a finite length. We know where they get their data from and you have to at least pretend to "consent" to provide it to them by initiating a financial transaction. The Breach aside, there are federal laws (FCRA, etc.) governing willful dissemination of the data they have on you, and the scope of the data they collect is entirely financial. None of this applies to Facebook/Google. There is no "consent" or opting-in to their lifestyle intelligence pool. You start building a dossier a few seconds after venturing onto the internet for the first time. Your name ending up on a list of middle-to-upper-class sales leads is not a crime against humanity. There are many other ways to get the same data, starting with public records.
- shawnz 8y ago
  Your arguments seem to work both ways, for example: There is no "consent" with Equifax, they start building a dossier a few seconds after you venture into the open market. You at least have to pretend to "consent" to Google by initiating an HTTP transaction with a Google-associated property. And there are many other ways to get the same data (again, like public records)

by human 8y ago

shawnz 8y ago

> These companies provide no additonal benefits. They provide safety for lenders, which allows those lenders to offer you cheaper prices. Is that worth it? Not sure personally, but I don't think it's fair to say that they are totally without benefit.

inetknght 8y ago
Safety for lenders... by allowing fraud to be cheaper than lending to real people? I'm afraid I don't understand your logic.
- shawnz 8y ago
  I didn't say that Equifax was the ideal realization of what a credit bureau is supposed to be.

jstarfish 8y ago

> Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy. Don't be silly. The long arm of Equifax has a finite length. We know where they get their data from and you have to at least pretend to "consent" to provide it to them by initiating a financial transaction. The Breach aside, there are federal laws (FCRA, etc.) governing willful dissemination of the data they have on you, and the scope of the data they collect is entirely financial. None of this applies to Facebook/Google. There is no "consent" or opting-in to their lifestyle intelligence pool. You start building a dossier a few seconds after venturing onto the internet for the first time. Your name ending up on a list of middle-to-upper-class sales leads is not a crime against humanity. There are many other ways to get the same data, starting with public records.

shawnz 8y ago
Your arguments seem to work both ways, for example: There is no "consent" with Equifax, they start building a dossier a few seconds after you venture into the open market. You at least have to pretend to "consent" to Google by initiating an HTTP transaction with a Google-associated property. And there are many other ways to get the same data (again, like public records)