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The best way for us as individuals to regain power and protest over misuse and collection of our data is to defiantly and deliberately "corrupt" that ill gotten
The best way for us as individuals to regain power and protest over misuse and collection of our data is to defiantly and deliberately "corrupt" that ill gotten data...
Go into really kinky sex shops and just browse around... Go to Chuck E Cheese and crash a kid's birthday party and jump in the ball pit (especially if you don't have kids). Buy diabetic socks, especially when you don't need them, or even lingerie for the opposite gender from Target. Host wild phone conversations with your friends in a nonsensical language, and do it as much as possible... Cover your front phone camera with black tape when it's not in use... Talk frequently about the opposite of what your real plans are directly into every microphone placed on every Internet connected device... Never use the same password you use on important resources for social media...
Adopt a great new pseudonym, and never verify yourself on any of your social media accounts, they can't demand that info, they're not the Government.
Hack the planet. :P
> lingerie for the opposite gender
There is... there is lingerie for men ??
Yes? Boys aren't restricted to superhero underoos and boxer shorts you know!
Anything is possible in Pennsylvania... Trust me (worth the downvotes, and I don't really live in PA mind you) :P
That reminds me of AdNauseam: adnauseam.io
Fundamentally, AdNauseam's approach is the correct one: corrupted data is far worse for adtech than missing data. Highly suggest installing AdNauseam, and then applying its ideas to your everyday life. Maybe occasionally buy things with friends' credit cards, then pay them back in cash?
> Fundamentally, AdNauseam's approach is the correct one: corrupted data is far worse for adtech than missing data.
No chance. No one cares if the data they have on you is accurate or not, least of all ad companies. They'll happily push ads at you all day and it doesn't matter to them what they're for. Companies will continue to use that false data to force you to pay more. An employer who refuses to hire you because of a false understanding of your spending habits or political views will never know the difference and neither will you. You'll just not get the job, you won't know why.
The data collected on you will be used against you no matter how accurate it is. Feeding the system "corrupt data" is still just handing them ammo to hit you with. It will always be better for you to avoid handing them data at all.
> No chance.
That's not a coherent response to my point - I have no idea what you're trying to say here.
> No one cares if the data they have on you is accurate or not, least of all ad companies.
This is wildly, factually incorrect. There's literally no reason for anyone to gather data if it's going to be consistently inaccurate. In the case of ad companies, they want correct data because they think it allows them to target ads better - they definitely care about accuracy.
> They'll happily push ads at you all day and it doesn't matter to them what they're for.
This is irrelevant. The problem of "I'm being shown ads" is completely orthogonal to the problem of "an organization is collecting a bunch of personal data about me". My comment was explicitly about the latter, yours is about the former and so shouldn't be a response to mine.
> An employer who refuses to hire you because of a false understanding of your spending habits or political views
That's an edge case that's easily worked around - just make your noise-introducer not add hazardous content.
> The data collected on you will be used against you no matter how accurate it is.
You're assuming that the data collected is actually useful as a weapon, and there's no reason to assume that. Your noise-detector could just add interests in a bunch of different products (avoiding the hazardous ones) - very low risk, and very confusing for an adtech company.
> It will always be better for you to avoid handing them data at all.
This is true in theory, but unfortunately very difficult in practice. Ad Nauseam's approach is the realistic, pragmatic one that survives contact with reality.
"Live your entire life as someone else" is not a solution.
> You cannot make a connection between these kinds of negative outcomes and Ad Nauseam (and related techniques) because it has never happened...Your entire comment is filled with ridiculous assertions, completely irrelevant tangents, illogical leaps, and pure speculation. None of it lines up with reality.
I clearly can't convince you, but I strongly encourage you to educate yourself if you honestly think none of the things I described have ever happened or could ever happen. Pretty much all of it is happening and/or has happened.
Extremist groups buying data to target and harass others? Already happened with people at abortion clinics (https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-reaches-settlement-with-advertising-company-prohibiting-geofencing-around-massachusetts-healthcare-facilities https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-reaches-settlement-with-adverti...)
see also:
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/04/data-brokers-selling-location-data-of-americans-who-visit-abortion-clinics/ https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/04/data-brokers-selling-loc...
https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/01/27/gay-bi-dating-app-muslim-prayer-apps-sold-data-on-peoples-location-to-a-controversial-data-broker https://themarkup.org/privacy/2022/01/27/gay-bi-dating-app-m...
https://sites.sanford.duke.edu/techpolicy/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2021/08/Data-Brokers-and-Sensitive-Data-on-US-Individuals-Sherman-2021.pdf https://sites.sanford.duke.edu/techpolicy/wp-content/uploads...
https://siliconangle.com/2022/05/02/grindr-user-location-data-reportedly-collected-sold/ https://siliconangle.com/2022/05/02/grindr-user-location-dat...
Stores changing prices on a per person basis based on their data?
"For example, ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace, indicates that it could increase profits by 84% by experimenting with personalized prices (Wallheimer 2018). Other players, such as travel sites (e.g., Orbitz, Hotel Tonight; DeAmicis 2015; Mattioli 2012), retailers (e.g., Amazon.com, Home Depot, Staples; Streitfeld 2000; Valentino-DeVries et al. 2012), and even grocery stores (e.g., Safeway; Clifford 2012) have also reportedly begun implementing personalized prices for their customers based on individual characteristics." (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41272-019-00224-3 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41272-019-00224-3)
Other fun ways stores use your data to discriminate against you? They can tell you their return policy is that they don't accept returns or have a very short return window while the next person who walks in the door gets told their return policy is extremely generous. Some even use it to decide how long to leave you on hold, bumping you down to the bottom of the queue when someone with a better "consumer reputation" calls in.
Health insurance rates being influenced by big data? There has been going on for a long time and there's a massive push to increase it.
"Insurers contend they use the information to spot health issues in their clients — and flag them so they get services they need. And companies like LexisNexis say the data shouldn’t be used to set prices. But as a research scientist from one company told me: “I can’t say it hasn’t happened.” (https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurers-are-vacuuming-up-details-about-you-and-it-could-raise-your-rates https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurers-are-vacuu...)
Police using search histories to fish for suspects?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-google-reverse-keyword-searches-rcna35749 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-google-reverse-k...
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/google-is-giving-data-to-police-based-on-search-keywords-court-docs-show/ https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/google-is-giving-data-to-p...
Seriously, all of this stuff is happening. The vast majority of the ways the data you hand over to companies are being used against you happen without your ever being made aware of it, but be assured that your life has already been impacted by the data you've provided and you will be dealing with the fall out of that data being out there for the rest of your life. Adding more data to that pile, accurate or not, will only hurt you.
Google banning Ad Nauseam is not proof that it will save you. Google is in the ad business and it's possible they banned it because they objected to the concept, thought it could have hurt the perception that their data was accurate, had concerns about how it would impact payouts, or any other reason, but it would do nothing to prevent any of the abuses described above and actually opens you up to more risk.
It's not like anyone is throwing out the file they have on you because there might be a mistake in it. Data brokers get paid the same no matter how accurate their data is. Feel free to get yourself flagged as being/doing more and more random things on top of all the real data you give up if you like, but I hope that you'll give it some real thought because it can, is, and will be used against you, and all that data (real or not) never ever goes away.