20 ms·

I asked an online tracking company for all of my data (2018)

305 points by weare138 6y ago

raxxorrax 6y ago
This reminds me of a story of a litte boy that just said: "I like seeing personalized ads."... while dragging everyone with him. It is incredible that this industry is allowed to operate like it does. If it vanished over night nothing would happen. The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. Doubtful it would be able to handle advertisers. Although I don't think many countries would be.
- dgellow 6y ago
  > The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. What do you mean? I don’t really understand what that would mean, or what you’re referencing. Was that part of the State of the Union, or is it another announcement? Edit: I found it. It’s an information based on EU strategy document from February. “The EU is launching a market for personal data” https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/11/1006555/eu-data-trust-trusts-project-privacy-policy-opinion/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/11/1006555/eu-data-... That doesn’t look good...
  - raxxorrax 6y ago
    It wants to market private information of citizens. Justification is that big tech companies already do so. The difference is that not everyone is on facebook/instagram.
teekert 6y ago
This latest trend is so annoying: there is either "Accept" or: "See purpose". And the "Don't accept" stuff is hidden under "See purpose". Infuriating.
- teraku 6y ago
  Sometimes it just refers me to the ad tracker's page and there is no option to opt-out except for mail...
- speedgoose 6y ago
  It's not GDPR compatible by the way.
  - jjulius 6y ago
    Unfortunately, it's compatible until the EU decides to hold people accountable for it.
    - lmkg 6y ago
      Not even the EU as a whole, it's up to the individual regulators in each country. On a related note: Since most US companies base their EU subsidiaries in Ireland for tax purposes, it's actually just up to the Irish regulator. There are... concerns.
      - enriquec 6y ago
        Individual freedom and sovereignty are always pesky nuisances for foolish centralized schemes.
      - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
        To be fair to the Irish regulator, the only reason that people have been able to delete Facebook accounts is because of their 2012 investigation. They are somewhat under-staffed, but this is improving (did you know that they are also suing the Irish Government?)
    - the_gipsy 6y ago
      https://enforcementtracker.com/ https://enforcementtracker.com/
      - 6y ago
supahfly_remix 6y ago
How does one get this data? I skimmed the article but didn't see how I could make a request.
- spartas 6y ago
  Like many data-collection companies, unless you live in the European Economic Area or the state of California, you are not allowed to see the data about yourself that these companies are collecting https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/data-subject-rights/ https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/data-subject-rights/
  - supahfly_remix 6y ago
    I see. Thanks for replying.
chopin 6y ago
It'd be useful if the author revealed how she managed to obtain her data. I am pretty sure that a request with just your real name wouldn't reveal much. I assume that most data is collected under some identifier which isn't matched to your real name in order to thwart this kind of request.
- wlll 6y ago
  I'd also like to know this. It seems like asking this organisation to delete my data would be largely beneficial, but what data do I need to provide for them to do it?
  - lmkg 6y ago
    According to GDPR, the contact info for sending an access or deletion request must be provided in the Privacy Policy. Under GDPR (Europe), if you send a request, the company must honor it unless they have reason to doubt your identity, in which case they must ask for follow-up. Under CCPA (California), they are only obligated to honor "verified" requests. There's a range of what counts as verifying, from just being able to log in to your account on the low end, up to providing 3 pieces of matching data on the high end. The company is obligated to tell you what data they have. They are not obligated to go out of their way to make connections, though, so you're better served by providing as many identifiers as possible (like account numbers).
  - WoefullyInept 6y ago
    It's really not. What do you think they'll do with a cookie id associated to a few events?
    - wlll 6y ago
      Apparently it's thousands of events, at least according to the linked article.
- ma2rten 6y ago
  If they got data from MasterCard and Experian, they must know the her real name.
alecco 6y ago
Besides uBlock Origin, you can use DNS hosts file blocking. This has the extra benefit of making sites fast and reducing your data transfers. Corporation block lists (e.g. Facebook, Google) https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/tree/master/corporations https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/tree/master/corporatio... "Someone Who Cares" list http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Ultimate Hosts Blacklist: 1 million blocked domains (once in a while you might need to unblock something) and also a bonus known hacking IP blocklist (prevents common hacking sources). https://github.com/mitchellkrogza/Ultimate.Hosts.Blacklist https://github.com/mitchellkrogza/Ultimate.Hosts.Blacklist If you have iOS device install an ad blocker app like AdBlock Fast, this plugs to practically all web sessions in the phone.
- pixxel 6y ago
  Adblock Fast has received 2 reviews in 4 years, and was last updated 3 years ago. Did you mean to recommend?
  - wadkar 6y ago
    Search for Better blocker app on iOS. I think it is _better_ than nothing :-)
- Techbrunch 6y ago
  I recommend everyone to check NextDNS. I'ts basically a Pi-hole in the cloud: https://nextdns.io/ https://nextdns.io/ I use it in combination with uBlock Origin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
- nicbou 6y ago
  How airtight is my current setup? * Firefox with third party cookies blocked * uBlock Origin with the usual blocklists * PiHole
- lima 6y ago
  > Besides uBlock Origin, you can use DNS hosts file blocking. This has the extra benefit of making sites fast and reducing your data transfers. There's no extra benefit beyond uBlock Origin, which already blocks requests before they are made.
maxehmookau 6y ago
> I can remember one night out where I’ve purchased quite a few bagels. This sounds like the kind of person I want to go on a night out with.
12xo 6y ago
The personal data industry is truly disgusting but the really funny thing is that most of the data is actually worthless. Its collected only because it can be. Not because its valuable or worthwhile. These companies are basically hoarders. Hoarders that rummage through your trash and spy on you from afar. They are awful, the business is awful and is a viable case of "just because you can, should you?"
- retSava 6y ago
  It has worth, only not the way you mean. It may (or may not) lead to better sales through ads, but it leads to more and more expensive ad sales and some very wealthy companies.
- ClikeX 6y ago
  Individual data is useless, but big data is worth gold. It can show you exactly where your target audiance is, and what they're common interests are. That's super valuable information if you want to start ad campaigns.
- amarka 6y ago
  Indeed it's totally worthless data, like what are you going to do, dissect people into groups that you could heavily target and try to sell them gizmos or swing an election? Pfft, not worth the effort. There are no companies or state actors are into that kind of thing.
jwcrux 6y ago
Nice! I did the same recently, where I requested my data from 14 different location data companies. [0] One company returned my data. Part of the difficulty was making the CCPA requests since I live in Texas, but the majority of responses were along the lines of having no way to identify the person behind the device identifier. https://duo.com/labs/research/data-companies-are-watching-me https://duo.com/labs/research/data-companies-are-watching-me
heresie-dabord 6y ago
I do not understand the complacency of people. Maybe they think that their freedom is unassailable? The commercial surveillance industry is a real threat. It exploits citizens' data and in doing so serves the dictatorial interests of government and the amoral activities of capitalism. The surveillance industry is also inept, and cybercriminals and state actors will get the data eventually.
- caymanjim 6y ago
  People have busy lives and other things to worry about. Even if they knew this were happening, no one has the time or energy to do anything about it. What have you done, other than post the obvious?
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Because while you're worried that you'll get an ad for a clothes iron after searching for one, they're worried about how they're going to make rent this month.
- nicbou 6y ago
  Because there are no noticeable effects. You get really well-targeted ads once in a while, but that's about it. Fighting back, on the other hand, brings a few inconveniences.
- MintsJohn 6y ago
  I feel the biggest problem is most of this happened before there was awareness. This isn't something an individual can stop anymore, it needs an collective massive effort to stop, blocking ads or trackers is only fighting the symptoms not the cause. So we need these practices to not happen, somehow. Legalisation is the obvious answer and there lies the problem, this is one thing where technological advancements fast outpaced legislation, and it doesn't help that big tech generally goes the way of practicing questionable or even illegal methods simply waiting to be called upon, then get away with empty promises, operating internationally they've gotten too powerful for a single government to deal with. So we need intenternational governmental cooperation in an field where those same governments benefit from this data, good luck with that. (is love to have a purely technical solution like blocking ads to work, but the problem isn't a technical one)
matt_f 6y ago
For those looking for how to request your information: This is what I've found so far on the privacy policy page. It sounds like it may be available only for california residents. > In addition to the information, controls and rights detailed in this privacy policy, California law provides for specific rights for California residents. California residents may request access to Personal Information, request a copy of their Personal Information, or request that their Personal Information be deleted. You may submit a verifiable request through Quantcast’s Data Subject Rights page, which can be found here. California residents may also submit verifiable requests by contacting Quantcast via email https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/ https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/
mjirv 6y ago
These kinds of articles always make me think about how big a privacy risk the laws that make these possible are. We're worried about user privacy, so we mandate that companies build a way to connect PII to otherwise-pseudonymous browsing data in case the user asks for it. What if someone else asks for it? Huge security risk. That's not to say these laws are bad, just that the giant additional privacy risk they pose is kind of funny to think about.
- dalbasal 6y ago
  It's a somewhat common pattern that regulation intended to stop the encroachment of some bad thing also effectively causes a standard to form around the (now) worst thing you can do and still be legal.
  - nicbou 6y ago
    Is that really the case? I'm thinking about minimum wage. If it wasn't there, would people get paid less, or more?
    - smsm42 6y ago
      Some people would be paid less - those that produce output below min wage level but the employer has no way to avoid hiring them and just eats the difference. Also those that produce output above min wage but there are many people willing to do the same work for min wage so they don't have a choice to agree to that wage too. Some would be paid more - those that produce output below min wage level and the potential employer doesn't hire them because they can't eat the difference, so they get no wage at all now.
      - nicbou 6y ago
        In the end, the free market would decide how much 1 hour of work is worth. If employees are sufficiently desperate, this could be below what it takes to keep the human doing the work alive. This reminds me of Grapes of Wrath.
    - 6y ago
motohagiography 6y ago
It occurred to me that if you want to see fewer ads and be generally left alone by marketers, get your IP and online data footprint associated with pariah topics like fringe news sites, weird subcultures, edgy politics, drug use, and privacy. Basically like being a hacker in the 1980s and 90s, or even part of early rave culture, where the sort of people who work in marketing would be afraid or uncomfortable with being associated with you before the culture is gentrified by people preoccupied by their reputations, and you can be free to create and innovate without being co-opted. No doubt they still have a category for you, but it's marked as a minefield, which is as good a moat as any.
- coffeemaniac 6y ago
  This is a dangerous game. Be aware that just because it might not seem like anyone is using these data against you right now, doesn't mean they won't in the future.
- dade_ 6y ago
  Until you travel to the US. I am sure the DHS uses this data as well.
  - sroussey 6y ago
    Why limit to US. I’m sure they just buy the data and skip warrants.
- ratww 6y ago
  Another option is to make the choice to not support companies affiliated with the ad-tech industry and just use an ad-blocker. They will even block most black-pattern ridden GDPR popups.
- nicbou 6y ago
  Where you see fringe, weird or edgy, someone might see a target demographic for something.
- ttsda 6y ago
  Do you guys see any ads online? I have ublock origin on my laptop and mobile browsers, modded youtube and instagram with no ads on android. I pretty much never see any ad. I also add the Annoyances lists to uBlock and I have the "I don't care about cookies" extension to ignore cookie popups.
afrojack123 6y ago
How do you purchase or get access to other people's data?
obscurenow 6y ago
I wonder what a company like this would do with this data set: gender: male, female, trans, etc... location: various around the globe age: various ages orientation: hetero, homo How would they pick the right age, gender and location for you? Do they just pick the latest they have? Do they assume federal sources are accurate? How do they deal with multiple values?
- Enginerrrd 6y ago
  They're out to make money not be politically correct. So edge cases probably don't matter to them much, even if they occasionally manage to offend some people.
gverrilla 6y ago
As a customer I would give them all info they need if they paid be a small sum compared to what they spend with absurd technologies and time. Maybe it would even make their product cheaper, increasing demand and further developing the economy! I mean: in theory, if they target us better, it would be cheaper to market, therefore allowing smaller prices - right !? Most people don't outright say it, but we're not only being spied: we pay for it. And most people are subject to a true hostage situation refered to as employment/salary. This is all abusive, and the worst part of it is that it's self-inflicted. The whole privacy thing, including the privacy-paranoia refers to a serious collective health issue. "Because the quest for profit makes men into predatory, insensitive and stupid brutes."
- hughw 6y ago
  Do you really want them to be able sell information about you like "Heavy home alcohol purchaser" to whoever pays them?
  - gverrilla 6y ago
    they can already. but as you can see, it's more often than not wrong information. There's so much scam the scammers scam themselves. Also, I couldn't care less, honestly. If I were a "Heavy home alcohol purchaser", perhaps I'd like to receive latest news related to that and promotions? I don't think privacy is the matter here at all. I think it's a problem with how we perceive our economy, which molds our entire life and death. And I get just honestly astonished by the stupidity reigning all over. Seeing how much attention a lot of groups devote to such concerns is only a leftover from the fact that real problems are not being addressed. Our focus as a collective is devoted to making money. People do everything for it. And who could blame them? If they don't have money they won't have a house, food, medical treatment, transportation, peace of mind, shelter from storms and cold, books, etc etc etc in most cases. At the same time, to make money they have to spend money. It's indeed maddening.
    - hughw 6y ago
      A prospective employer could buy the information about your alcohol use and decide not to hire you. An opponent in a lawsuit could use it to show you have a pattern of heavy alcohol use that caused you to be negligent. When you run for office in 10 years the other party will run attack ads against you using the information. Need I go on?
hughw 6y ago
HN is full of people invested in the surveillance economy. Do not question it here.
_trampeltier 6y ago
Maybe a bit of topic, but since we all should pay cashless, because of corona, what info does a shop get about me, if I pay with a debit card or credit card? Has someone a data sample? And what company's get (buy) information about what I bought with my debit card?
- chias 6y ago
  The shop can correlate all of your purchases (down to individual items) into a single purchaser profile tied to your credit card number -- basically the same as if you used a loyalty card with all of your purchases. If they can ever gain the ability to link a credit card with an identity, (say, via a credit card purchase that uses your loyalty card) then they can link multiple credit card profiles together. In terms of data flow, it mostly goes the other way. It allows the shops to sell this data about you to others. Your credit card company does this, of course, but the only "direct" visibility they get is to the establishment. "In an average month, _trampeltier spends $x at grocery stores, $y at liquor stores, $z at tobacco shops", etc. They don't learn the actual itemized purchases without cooperation from shops (who of course have this data). Though I wouldn't be surprised if that was built into credit card processing agreements at this point, who knows.
jkbschwarz 6y ago
Extension idea: A chrome or firefox extension that allows me to automatically choose the minimum cookie settings for most websites that use a standardised “consent solution”. I.e. if it is a consent solution by quantcast it automatically opt-outs of all cookies. does anybody know whether this already exists?
- Emendo 6y ago
  Or alternatively, hide the popup prompt from showing up at the first place as I found myself clicking "Consent". That tends to be a quicker path to getting things done than figuring out whatever wordings the designer came up with decline.
gesman 6y ago
Someone should come up with a site with specific regulatory-approved form to request ALL information from ALL tracking companies. Let flood them with never ending, millions of requests and make sure they comply with the each of these according to regulation.
Animats 6y ago
I tried Quantcast's "opt out" page, at https://www.quantcast.com/opt-out/ https://www.quantcast.com/opt-out/ It doesn't work if you have trackers blocked.
Balgair 6y ago
https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-Li... Here's a big list of the various companies that track you and your data and the methods for which to opt-out of their lists. It takes an afternoon to go through, but it's not all that bad. If anyone knows how often you need to go through this list, I'd love to know.
evilsetg 6y ago
Every time I read "We value your privacy" I want to throw something at my computer screen. The amount of dark patterns and dishonesty in targeted advertising is astonishing.
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lizardmancan 6y ago
we must be in the future now that the machine knows your afinity with Baby Nappies & Wipes before you know it yourself.
grishka 6y ago
I can't repeat this enough: disable third-party cookies in your browser and install uBlock origin. You aren't going to lose much in the way of useful website functionality, but you will become effectively untrackable.
ssklash 6y ago
I hope all the people who work at Google and Facebook see this and know that this is the goal of their jobs. Not "solving hard problems" or "bringing the world closer together". It's to gather incredibly fine-grained data on every person possible and use it/sell it to people who will use it to influence and change the behavior of those people in a way never imagined, as well as hand it over to governments at the drop of a hat to enable surveillance Orwell couldn't have dreamed of. Pleas reconsider where you work and what you enable.
rkagerer 6y ago
I bought a NET10 international SIM card 7 years ago. Only used it for a couple weeks. Last month I asked them to delete my account. Spoke to 3 people and they weren't able to do it. One agent outright lied and said he did, but I was still able to log in after the fact. The best they managed was to change some of the profile details on the account (name, etc). I submitted a formal request under California's "Right to Delete" legislation (CCPA section 1798.105). The response was a formal letter from the parent company denying my request. It's a template letter with legalese bullshit that's totally inapplicable (e.g. they argue there's still a "business relationship", even though we haven't done any business in 7 years). NET10 is owned by TracFone Wireless, which in turn is 100% owned by América Móvil (NYSE:AMX, $41B market cap). I believe they had my address, email address, phone number, date of birth, etc. It's disgusting what these giant telco bastards get away with. Why don't US laws have the same "teeth" as GDPR, and any advice to force them to delete my data? (e.g. If anyone here advocates for this sort of thing on social media and wants a slightly-redacted copy of the letter to publicly shame them I'd be happy to deliver that).
- square_usual 6y ago
  FWIW, the GDPR doesn't have too much teeth, either; most big players haven't received big fines. The biggest fine to date has been the French fine of EUR 50m on Google, and Facebook has gotten off almost entirely scot-free so far. That should tell you almost everything you need to know about how effective the GDPR has been. Of course, I don't mean to say the GDPR is useless. There's a lot of good work being done, and an Italian telecom was fined ~EUR28 mn for violations similar to what you had to face. I just think GDPR enforcement needs to step it up and hit the usual suspects with fines that go beyond a slap on the wrist for it to really change the world. You can track major fines using an enforcement tracker, I check on [1], but you can also just google it every now and then to stay up to date. 1: https://www.coreview.com/blog/alpin-gdpr-fines-list/ https://www.coreview.com/blog/alpin-gdpr-fines-list/
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    To be fair, it's pretty difficult to sue a megacorp and make it stick, so I suspect that we won't see either Google or FB be massively penalised till late 2021 or early 2022. By which point FB will no longer exist in Europe (as they recently claimed that the Privacy Shield ruling would require them to do).

305 points by weare138 6y ago

This reminds me of a story of a litte boy that just said: "I like seeing personalized ads."... while dragging everyone with him. It is incredible that this industry is allowed to operate like it does. If it vanished over night nothing would happen. The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. Doubtful it would be able to handle advertisers. Although I don't think many countries would be.

dgellow 6y ago
> The EU just had its strategy changed and pronounced that it is everyone's civic duty to share even more. What do you mean? I don’t really understand what that would mean, or what you’re referencing. Was that part of the State of the Union, or is it another announcement? Edit: I found it. It’s an information based on EU strategy document from February. “The EU is launching a market for personal data” https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/11/1006555/eu-data-trust-trusts-project-privacy-policy-opinion/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/11/1006555/eu-data-... That doesn’t look good...
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  It wants to market private information of citizens. Justification is that big tech companies already do so. The difference is that not everyone is on facebook/instagram.

teekert 6y ago

This latest trend is so annoying: there is either "Accept" or: "See purpose". And the "Don't accept" stuff is hidden under "See purpose". Infuriating.

teraku 6y ago
Sometimes it just refers me to the ad tracker's page and there is no option to opt-out except for mail...
speedgoose 6y ago
It's not GDPR compatible by the way.
- jjulius 6y ago
  Unfortunately, it's compatible until the EU decides to hold people accountable for it.
  - lmkg 6y ago
    Not even the EU as a whole, it's up to the individual regulators in each country. On a related note: Since most US companies base their EU subsidiaries in Ireland for tax purposes, it's actually just up to the Irish regulator. There are... concerns.
    - enriquec 6y ago
      Individual freedom and sovereignty are always pesky nuisances for foolish centralized schemes.
    - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      To be fair to the Irish regulator, the only reason that people have been able to delete Facebook accounts is because of their 2012 investigation. They are somewhat under-staffed, but this is improving (did you know that they are also suing the Irish Government?)
  - the_gipsy 6y ago
    https://enforcementtracker.com/ https://enforcementtracker.com/
    - 6y ago

supahfly_remix 6y ago

How does one get this data? I skimmed the article but didn't see how I could make a request.

spartas 6y ago
Like many data-collection companies, unless you live in the European Economic Area or the state of California, you are not allowed to see the data about yourself that these companies are collecting https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/data-subject-rights/ https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/data-subject-rights/
- supahfly_remix 6y ago
  I see. Thanks for replying.

chopin 6y ago

It'd be useful if the author revealed how she managed to obtain her data. I am pretty sure that a request with just your real name wouldn't reveal much. I assume that most data is collected under some identifier which isn't matched to your real name in order to thwart this kind of request.

wlll 6y ago
I'd also like to know this. It seems like asking this organisation to delete my data would be largely beneficial, but what data do I need to provide for them to do it?
- lmkg 6y ago
  According to GDPR, the contact info for sending an access or deletion request must be provided in the Privacy Policy. Under GDPR (Europe), if you send a request, the company must honor it unless they have reason to doubt your identity, in which case they must ask for follow-up. Under CCPA (California), they are only obligated to honor "verified" requests. There's a range of what counts as verifying, from just being able to log in to your account on the low end, up to providing 3 pieces of matching data on the high end. The company is obligated to tell you what data they have. They are not obligated to go out of their way to make connections, though, so you're better served by providing as many identifiers as possible (like account numbers).
- WoefullyInept 6y ago
  It's really not. What do you think they'll do with a cookie id associated to a few events?
  - wlll 6y ago
    Apparently it's thousands of events, at least according to the linked article.
ma2rten 6y ago
If they got data from MasterCard and Experian, they must know the her real name.

alecco 6y ago

Besides uBlock Origin, you can use DNS hosts file blocking. This has the extra benefit of making sites fast and reducing your data transfers. Corporation block lists (e.g. Facebook, Google) https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/tree/master/corporations https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/tree/master/corporatio... "Someone Who Cares" list http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Ultimate Hosts Blacklist: 1 million blocked domains (once in a while you might need to unblock something) and also a bonus known hacking IP blocklist (prevents common hacking sources). https://github.com/mitchellkrogza/Ultimate.Hosts.Blacklist https://github.com/mitchellkrogza/Ultimate.Hosts.Blacklist If you have iOS device install an ad blocker app like AdBlock Fast, this plugs to practically all web sessions in the phone.

pixxel 6y ago
Adblock Fast has received 2 reviews in 4 years, and was last updated 3 years ago. Did you mean to recommend?
- wadkar 6y ago
  Search for Better blocker app on iOS. I think it is _better_ than nothing :-)
Techbrunch 6y ago
I recommend everyone to check NextDNS. I'ts basically a Pi-hole in the cloud: https://nextdns.io/ https://nextdns.io/ I use it in combination with uBlock Origin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
nicbou 6y ago
How airtight is my current setup? * Firefox with third party cookies blocked * uBlock Origin with the usual blocklists * PiHole
lima 6y ago
> Besides uBlock Origin, you can use DNS hosts file blocking. This has the extra benefit of making sites fast and reducing your data transfers. There's no extra benefit beyond uBlock Origin, which already blocks requests before they are made.

maxehmookau 6y ago

> I can remember one night out where I’ve purchased quite a few bagels. This sounds like the kind of person I want to go on a night out with.

12xo 6y ago

The personal data industry is truly disgusting but the really funny thing is that most of the data is actually worthless. Its collected only because it can be. Not because its valuable or worthwhile. These companies are basically hoarders. Hoarders that rummage through your trash and spy on you from afar. They are awful, the business is awful and is a viable case of "just because you can, should you?"

retSava 6y ago
It has worth, only not the way you mean. It may (or may not) lead to better sales through ads, but it leads to more and more expensive ad sales and some very wealthy companies.
ClikeX 6y ago
Individual data is useless, but big data is worth gold. It can show you exactly where your target audiance is, and what they're common interests are. That's super valuable information if you want to start ad campaigns.
amarka 6y ago
Indeed it's totally worthless data, like what are you going to do, dissect people into groups that you could heavily target and try to sell them gizmos or swing an election? Pfft, not worth the effort. There are no companies or state actors are into that kind of thing.

jwcrux 6y ago

Nice! I did the same recently, where I requested my data from 14 different location data companies. [0] One company returned my data. Part of the difficulty was making the CCPA requests since I live in Texas, but the majority of responses were along the lines of having no way to identify the person behind the device identifier. https://duo.com/labs/research/data-companies-are-watching-me https://duo.com/labs/research/data-companies-are-watching-me

heresie-dabord 6y ago

I do not understand the complacency of people. Maybe they think that their freedom is unassailable? The commercial surveillance industry is a real threat. It exploits citizens' data and in doing so serves the dictatorial interests of government and the amoral activities of capitalism. The surveillance industry is also inept, and cybercriminals and state actors will get the data eventually.

caymanjim 6y ago
People have busy lives and other things to worry about. Even if they knew this were happening, no one has the time or energy to do anything about it. What have you done, other than post the obvious?
renewiltord 6y ago
Because while you're worried that you'll get an ad for a clothes iron after searching for one, they're worried about how they're going to make rent this month.
nicbou 6y ago
Because there are no noticeable effects. You get really well-targeted ads once in a while, but that's about it. Fighting back, on the other hand, brings a few inconveniences.
MintsJohn 6y ago
I feel the biggest problem is most of this happened before there was awareness. This isn't something an individual can stop anymore, it needs an collective massive effort to stop, blocking ads or trackers is only fighting the symptoms not the cause. So we need these practices to not happen, somehow. Legalisation is the obvious answer and there lies the problem, this is one thing where technological advancements fast outpaced legislation, and it doesn't help that big tech generally goes the way of practicing questionable or even illegal methods simply waiting to be called upon, then get away with empty promises, operating internationally they've gotten too powerful for a single government to deal with. So we need intenternational governmental cooperation in an field where those same governments benefit from this data, good luck with that. (is love to have a purely technical solution like blocking ads to work, but the problem isn't a technical one)

matt_f 6y ago

For those looking for how to request your information: This is what I've found so far on the privacy policy page. It sounds like it may be available only for california residents. > In addition to the information, controls and rights detailed in this privacy policy, California law provides for specific rights for California residents. California residents may request access to Personal Information, request a copy of their Personal Information, or request that their Personal Information be deleted. You may submit a verifiable request through Quantcast’s Data Subject Rights page, which can be found here. California residents may also submit verifiable requests by contacting Quantcast via email https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/ https://www.quantcast.com/privacy/

mjirv 6y ago

These kinds of articles always make me think about how big a privacy risk the laws that make these possible are. We're worried about user privacy, so we mandate that companies build a way to connect PII to otherwise-pseudonymous browsing data in case the user asks for it. What if someone else asks for it? Huge security risk. That's not to say these laws are bad, just that the giant additional privacy risk they pose is kind of funny to think about.

dalbasal 6y ago
It's a somewhat common pattern that regulation intended to stop the encroachment of some bad thing also effectively causes a standard to form around the (now) worst thing you can do and still be legal.
- nicbou 6y ago
  Is that really the case? I'm thinking about minimum wage. If it wasn't there, would people get paid less, or more?
  - smsm42 6y ago
    Some people would be paid less - those that produce output below min wage level but the employer has no way to avoid hiring them and just eats the difference. Also those that produce output above min wage but there are many people willing to do the same work for min wage so they don't have a choice to agree to that wage too. Some would be paid more - those that produce output below min wage level and the potential employer doesn't hire them because they can't eat the difference, so they get no wage at all now.
    - nicbou 6y ago
      In the end, the free market would decide how much 1 hour of work is worth. If employees are sufficiently desperate, this could be below what it takes to keep the human doing the work alive. This reminds me of Grapes of Wrath.
  - 6y ago

motohagiography 6y ago

It occurred to me that if you want to see fewer ads and be generally left alone by marketers, get your IP and online data footprint associated with pariah topics like fringe news sites, weird subcultures, edgy politics, drug use, and privacy. Basically like being a hacker in the 1980s and 90s, or even part of early rave culture, where the sort of people who work in marketing would be afraid or uncomfortable with being associated with you before the culture is gentrified by people preoccupied by their reputations, and you can be free to create and innovate without being co-opted. No doubt they still have a category for you, but it's marked as a minefield, which is as good a moat as any.

coffeemaniac 6y ago
This is a dangerous game. Be aware that just because it might not seem like anyone is using these data against you right now, doesn't mean they won't in the future.
dade_ 6y ago
Until you travel to the US. I am sure the DHS uses this data as well.
- sroussey 6y ago
  Why limit to US. I’m sure they just buy the data and skip warrants.
ratww 6y ago
Another option is to make the choice to not support companies affiliated with the ad-tech industry and just use an ad-blocker. They will even block most black-pattern ridden GDPR popups.
nicbou 6y ago
Where you see fringe, weird or edgy, someone might see a target demographic for something.
ttsda 6y ago
Do you guys see any ads online? I have ublock origin on my laptop and mobile browsers, modded youtube and instagram with no ads on android. I pretty much never see any ad. I also add the Annoyances lists to uBlock and I have the "I don't care about cookies" extension to ignore cookie popups.

afrojack123 6y ago

How do you purchase or get access to other people's data?

obscurenow 6y ago

I wonder what a company like this would do with this data set: gender: male, female, trans, etc... location: various around the globe age: various ages orientation: hetero, homo How would they pick the right age, gender and location for you? Do they just pick the latest they have? Do they assume federal sources are accurate? How do they deal with multiple values?

Enginerrrd 6y ago
They're out to make money not be politically correct. So edge cases probably don't matter to them much, even if they occasionally manage to offend some people.

gverrilla 6y ago

As a customer I would give them all info they need if they paid be a small sum compared to what they spend with absurd technologies and time. Maybe it would even make their product cheaper, increasing demand and further developing the economy! I mean: in theory, if they target us better, it would be cheaper to market, therefore allowing smaller prices - right !? Most people don't outright say it, but we're not only being spied: we pay for it. And most people are subject to a true hostage situation refered to as employment/salary. This is all abusive, and the worst part of it is that it's self-inflicted. The whole privacy thing, including the privacy-paranoia refers to a serious collective health issue. "Because the quest for profit makes men into predatory, insensitive and stupid brutes."

hughw 6y ago
Do you really want them to be able sell information about you like "Heavy home alcohol purchaser" to whoever pays them?
- gverrilla 6y ago
  they can already. but as you can see, it's more often than not wrong information. There's so much scam the scammers scam themselves. Also, I couldn't care less, honestly. If I were a "Heavy home alcohol purchaser", perhaps I'd like to receive latest news related to that and promotions? I don't think privacy is the matter here at all. I think it's a problem with how we perceive our economy, which molds our entire life and death. And I get just honestly astonished by the stupidity reigning all over. Seeing how much attention a lot of groups devote to such concerns is only a leftover from the fact that real problems are not being addressed. Our focus as a collective is devoted to making money. People do everything for it. And who could blame them? If they don't have money they won't have a house, food, medical treatment, transportation, peace of mind, shelter from storms and cold, books, etc etc etc in most cases. At the same time, to make money they have to spend money. It's indeed maddening.
  - hughw 6y ago
    A prospective employer could buy the information about your alcohol use and decide not to hire you. An opponent in a lawsuit could use it to show you have a pattern of heavy alcohol use that caused you to be negligent. When you run for office in 10 years the other party will run attack ads against you using the information. Need I go on?

hughw 6y ago

HN is full of people invested in the surveillance economy. Do not question it here.

_trampeltier 6y ago

Maybe a bit of topic, but since we all should pay cashless, because of corona, what info does a shop get about me, if I pay with a debit card or credit card? Has someone a data sample? And what company's get (buy) information about what I bought with my debit card?

chias 6y ago
The shop can correlate all of your purchases (down to individual items) into a single purchaser profile tied to your credit card number -- basically the same as if you used a loyalty card with all of your purchases. If they can ever gain the ability to link a credit card with an identity, (say, via a credit card purchase that uses your loyalty card) then they can link multiple credit card profiles together. In terms of data flow, it mostly goes the other way. It allows the shops to sell this data about you to others. Your credit card company does this, of course, but the only "direct" visibility they get is to the establishment. "In an average month, _trampeltier spends $x at grocery stores, $y at liquor stores, $z at tobacco shops", etc. They don't learn the actual itemized purchases without cooperation from shops (who of course have this data). Though I wouldn't be surprised if that was built into credit card processing agreements at this point, who knows.

jkbschwarz 6y ago

Extension idea: A chrome or firefox extension that allows me to automatically choose the minimum cookie settings for most websites that use a standardised “consent solution”. I.e. if it is a consent solution by quantcast it automatically opt-outs of all cookies. does anybody know whether this already exists?

Emendo 6y ago
Or alternatively, hide the popup prompt from showing up at the first place as I found myself clicking "Consent". That tends to be a quicker path to getting things done than figuring out whatever wordings the designer came up with decline.

gesman 6y ago

Someone should come up with a site with specific regulatory-approved form to request ALL information from ALL tracking companies. Let flood them with never ending, millions of requests and make sure they comply with the each of these according to regulation.

Animats 6y ago

I tried Quantcast's "opt out" page, at https://www.quantcast.com/opt-out/ https://www.quantcast.com/opt-out/ It doesn't work if you have trackers blocked.

Balgair 6y ago

https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-List https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-Li... Here's a big list of the various companies that track you and your data and the methods for which to opt-out of their lists. It takes an afternoon to go through, but it's not all that bad. If anyone knows how often you need to go through this list, I'd love to know.

evilsetg 6y ago

Every time I read "We value your privacy" I want to throw something at my computer screen. The amount of dark patterns and dishonesty in targeted advertising is astonishing.

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lizardmancan 6y ago

we must be in the future now that the machine knows your afinity with Baby Nappies & Wipes before you know it yourself.

grishka 6y ago

I can't repeat this enough: disable third-party cookies in your browser and install uBlock origin. You aren't going to lose much in the way of useful website functionality, but you will become effectively untrackable.

ssklash 6y ago

I hope all the people who work at Google and Facebook see this and know that this is the goal of their jobs. Not "solving hard problems" or "bringing the world closer together". It's to gather incredibly fine-grained data on every person possible and use it/sell it to people who will use it to influence and change the behavior of those people in a way never imagined, as well as hand it over to governments at the drop of a hat to enable surveillance Orwell couldn't have dreamed of. Pleas reconsider where you work and what you enable.

rkagerer 6y ago

I bought a NET10 international SIM card 7 years ago. Only used it for a couple weeks. Last month I asked them to delete my account. Spoke to 3 people and they weren't able to do it. One agent outright lied and said he did, but I was still able to log in after the fact. The best they managed was to change some of the profile details on the account (name, etc). I submitted a formal request under California's "Right to Delete" legislation (CCPA section 1798.105). The response was a formal letter from the parent company denying my request. It's a template letter with legalese bullshit that's totally inapplicable (e.g. they argue there's still a "business relationship", even though we haven't done any business in 7 years). NET10 is owned by TracFone Wireless, which in turn is 100% owned by América Móvil (NYSE:AMX, $41B market cap). I believe they had my address, email address, phone number, date of birth, etc. It's disgusting what these giant telco bastards get away with. Why don't US laws have the same "teeth" as GDPR, and any advice to force them to delete my data? (e.g. If anyone here advocates for this sort of thing on social media and wants a slightly-redacted copy of the letter to publicly shame them I'd be happy to deliver that).

square_usual 6y ago
FWIW, the GDPR doesn't have too much teeth, either; most big players haven't received big fines. The biggest fine to date has been the French fine of EUR 50m on Google, and Facebook has gotten off almost entirely scot-free so far. That should tell you almost everything you need to know about how effective the GDPR has been. Of course, I don't mean to say the GDPR is useless. There's a lot of good work being done, and an Italian telecom was fined ~EUR28 mn for violations similar to what you had to face. I just think GDPR enforcement needs to step it up and hit the usual suspects with fines that go beyond a slap on the wrist for it to really change the world. You can track major fines using an enforcement tracker, I check on [1], but you can also just google it every now and then to stay up to date. 1: https://www.coreview.com/blog/alpin-gdpr-fines-list/ https://www.coreview.com/blog/alpin-gdpr-fines-list/
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  To be fair, it's pretty difficult to sue a megacorp and make it stick, so I suspect that we won't see either Google or FB be massively penalised till late 2021 or early 2022. By which point FB will no longer exist in Europe (as they recently claimed that the Privacy Shield ruling would require them to do).