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The article seems a little sensationalized, but even viewed in a generous light it's still downright creepy. ...clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKins

The article seems a little sensationalized, but even viewed in a generous light it's still downright creepy. ...clients include Google, Yelp, Microsoft, McKinsey, Pepsi, Sephora, Home Depot, Condé Nast, Intuit, and many others. It is possible to determine from the collected data what date and time the anonymized user visited YouPorn and PornHub, and in some cases what search term they entered into the porn site and which specific video they watched. Although the data does not include personal information such as users' names, it still contains a wealth of specific browsing data, and experts say it could be possible to deanonymize certain users.

adossi 7y ago
Yeah it's creepy, but I wonder how that data is used? Like, what ads will Google show me depending on the type of porn I watch?
- mikejb 7y ago
  IIUC, porn is used as an example to highlight that these are very personal details that are being sold, and porn preferences are things people often fear more of leaking than - for example - their financial data. John Oliver, in his work on the NSA scandal had Snowden explain individual NSA programs based on "dick picks", to help people visualize and clarify the consequences of what otherwise is just generically described as "selling/stealing your data".
  - freehunter 7y ago
    Yeah people always assume the buyers of the data are companies like Google, and not some group who wants to blackmail you if you don't give them five Bitcoins.
  - nonbirithm 7y ago
    > porn preferences are things people often fear more of leaking than - for example - their financial data I remember this being the opposite - for nude pictures instead of porn preferences at least. Avast did a study where 77% of US respondents said that between nude pictures and financial data they would rather have nude pictures of them leaked[0]. Maybe it's because financial data is directly tied to one's well-being but except for certain professions nude photos aren't. Then again nude photos aren't necessarily the same as porn. [0] https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/17/study-smartphone-users-fear-leaked-bank-data-more-than-leaked-nudes/ https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/17/study-smartphone-u...
- nexuist 7y ago
  Dating sites, for one.
  - inkeddeveloper 7y ago
    Hard to find a dating site that specializes in ... looks up his profile ... oh boy, that's some weird stuff.
- _jal 7y ago
  Why concentrate on intended use? More interesting is what, er, unanticipated value-add might be there. Could a malicious actor create a blackmail-bot? It wouldn't even need to be that great - just something a little more believable than the "I took over your computer and videoed you masturbating" spam. Could more subtle, targeted blackmail operation involve this data? There is a lot of this sort of thing in politics. We know PIs, bail-bonders and other folks on the fuzzy LE/commercial coercion industry line were heavy users of realtime cellphone tracking. I imagine the more creative ones have considered the value of these data pits, too.
vatueil 7y ago
For context, the sentence starts with: > Some past, present, and potential clients include... Keyword "potential".
- nabakin 7y ago
  Exactly. That word makes me discredit the entire list. Although, the subtitle does say > Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey.
  - makomk 7y ago
    From the PCMag article, it seems that Jumpshot's marketing materials claimed they'd worked with some companies that denied actually doing business with them when contacted by reporters, hence the "potential" clients - it's not clear who's lying.
palant 7y ago
The article is actually rather generous, particularly when it says "could be possible to deanonymize certain users." Having done my own research on that [1], I would have formulated this as "allowed to deanonymize most users." [1] https://palant.de/2020/01/27/avasts-broken-data-anonymization-approach/ https://palant.de/2020/01/27/avasts-broken-data-anonymizatio...

adossi 7y ago

Yeah it's creepy, but I wonder how that data is used? Like, what ads will Google show me depending on the type of porn I watch?

mikejb 7y ago
IIUC, porn is used as an example to highlight that these are very personal details that are being sold, and porn preferences are things people often fear more of leaking than - for example - their financial data. John Oliver, in his work on the NSA scandal had Snowden explain individual NSA programs based on "dick picks", to help people visualize and clarify the consequences of what otherwise is just generically described as "selling/stealing your data".
- freehunter 7y ago
  Yeah people always assume the buyers of the data are companies like Google, and not some group who wants to blackmail you if you don't give them five Bitcoins.
- nonbirithm 7y ago
  > porn preferences are things people often fear more of leaking than - for example - their financial data I remember this being the opposite - for nude pictures instead of porn preferences at least. Avast did a study where 77% of US respondents said that between nude pictures and financial data they would rather have nude pictures of them leaked[0]. Maybe it's because financial data is directly tied to one's well-being but except for certain professions nude photos aren't. Then again nude photos aren't necessarily the same as porn. [0] https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/17/study-smartphone-users-fear-leaked-bank-data-more-than-leaked-nudes/ https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/11/17/study-smartphone-u...
nexuist 7y ago
Dating sites, for one.
- inkeddeveloper 7y ago
  Hard to find a dating site that specializes in ... looks up his profile ... oh boy, that's some weird stuff.
_jal 7y ago
Why concentrate on intended use? More interesting is what, er, unanticipated value-add might be there. Could a malicious actor create a blackmail-bot? It wouldn't even need to be that great - just something a little more believable than the "I took over your computer and videoed you masturbating" spam. Could more subtle, targeted blackmail operation involve this data? There is a lot of this sort of thing in politics. We know PIs, bail-bonders and other folks on the fuzzy LE/commercial coercion industry line were heavy users of realtime cellphone tracking. I imagine the more creative ones have considered the value of these data pits, too.

vatueil 7y ago

For context, the sentence starts with: > Some past, present, and potential clients include... Keyword "potential".

nabakin 7y ago
Exactly. That word makes me discredit the entire list. Although, the subtitle does say > Its clients have included Home Depot, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, and McKinsey.
- makomk 7y ago
  From the PCMag article, it seems that Jumpshot's marketing materials claimed they'd worked with some companies that denied actually doing business with them when contacted by reporters, hence the "potential" clients - it's not clear who's lying.

palant 7y ago

The article is actually rather generous, particularly when it says "could be possible to deanonymize certain users." Having done my own research on that [1], I would have formulated this as "allowed to deanonymize most users." [1] https://palant.de/2020/01/27/avasts-broken-data-anonymization-approach/ https://palant.de/2020/01/27/avasts-broken-data-anonymizatio...