4 ms·

You can choose to not give away your data by not using those services. Boycott those services or help build competing privacy-centric services.

specialist 4y ago
How could I have known GoodRx would sell my data to advertisers? I thought it was illegal for them to do so.
- landemva 4y ago
  I am not familiar with that service. If you work W-2, the payroll processor for your company likely gives your payroll details to theworknumber. This is ridiculous.
  - specialist 4y ago
    FTC Enforcement Action to Bar GoodRx from Sharing Consumers’ Sensitive Health Info for Advertising [2023/02/01] Under proposed order, GoodRx will pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for failing to report its unauthorized disclosure of consumer health data to Facebook, Google, and other companies https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/ftc-enforcement-action-bar-goodrx-sharing-consumers-sensitive-health-info-advertising https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/... GoodRx Response to FTC Settlement https://www.goodrx.com/corporate/business/goodrx-response-to-ftc https://www.goodrx.com/corporate/business/goodrx-response-to... FWIW, I used to work in healthcare IT, mid 2000s. At the time, it was understood that sharing data for the purposes of marketing and advertising was illegal. Also, being a geek somewhat familiar with stuff like tracking pixels, I'm still not sure what to make of GoodRx's response. If I can't make head's or tails of this case, what hope does a layperson have?
autoexec 4y ago
> You can choose to not give away your data by not using those services. This is just plain wrong. There are privacy violating services where people are not given a choice. I don't have a Facebook account, but they bought tons of data about me from brokers and used to it to create a shadow profile that they continuously update using any scrap of information on me that they can find including what they can get out of the conversations held by my friends and family members who do have facebook accounts. What choice did I have in any of that? Critical services and even government websites force you to hand information over to privacy hostile companies. You can't even go to irs.gov without pinging Google's servers, allowing them to collect data on you. Sorry, but "never use the internet again" isn't really a viable option and as long as you use the internet your data will be taken from you without your consent, or even your awareness. Choice, isn't really a factor.
- landemva 4y ago
  To your point on family ties, potential DNA matching between relatives will not be avoidable. I wonder if there could be a constitutional amendment to protect us.
  - autoexec 4y ago
    It's what we need, but it'd be a hard sell. The government loves being able to take all this data, even our DNA. (https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/in... and https://www.aclu.org/other/newborn-dna-banking https://www.aclu.org/other/newborn-dna-banking) What hope do we have of our government protecting us from their own actions?
alasdair_ 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile Facebook (and others) make profiles of people that have never agreed to it, nor visited facebook in their lives. So do the credit reporting agencies, to a different extent.

specialist 4y ago

How could I have known GoodRx would sell my data to advertisers? I thought it was illegal for them to do so.

landemva 4y ago
I am not familiar with that service. If you work W-2, the payroll processor for your company likely gives your payroll details to theworknumber. This is ridiculous.
- specialist 4y ago
  FTC Enforcement Action to Bar GoodRx from Sharing Consumers’ Sensitive Health Info for Advertising [2023/02/01] Under proposed order, GoodRx will pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for failing to report its unauthorized disclosure of consumer health data to Facebook, Google, and other companies https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/ftc-enforcement-action-bar-goodrx-sharing-consumers-sensitive-health-info-advertising https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/... GoodRx Response to FTC Settlement https://www.goodrx.com/corporate/business/goodrx-response-to-ftc https://www.goodrx.com/corporate/business/goodrx-response-to... FWIW, I used to work in healthcare IT, mid 2000s. At the time, it was understood that sharing data for the purposes of marketing and advertising was illegal. Also, being a geek somewhat familiar with stuff like tracking pixels, I'm still not sure what to make of GoodRx's response. If I can't make head's or tails of this case, what hope does a layperson have?

autoexec 4y ago

> You can choose to not give away your data by not using those services. This is just plain wrong. There are privacy violating services where people are not given a choice. I don't have a Facebook account, but they bought tons of data about me from brokers and used to it to create a shadow profile that they continuously update using any scrap of information on me that they can find including what they can get out of the conversations held by my friends and family members who do have facebook accounts. What choice did I have in any of that? Critical services and even government websites force you to hand information over to privacy hostile companies. You can't even go to irs.gov without pinging Google's servers, allowing them to collect data on you. Sorry, but "never use the internet again" isn't really a viable option and as long as you use the internet your data will be taken from you without your consent, or even your awareness. Choice, isn't really a factor.

landemva 4y ago
To your point on family ties, potential DNA matching between relatives will not be avoidable. I wonder if there could be a constitutional amendment to protect us.
- autoexec 4y ago
  It's what we need, but it'd be a hard sell. The government loves being able to take all this data, even our DNA. (https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/04/baby.dna.government/in... and https://www.aclu.org/other/newborn-dna-banking https://www.aclu.org/other/newborn-dna-banking) What hope do we have of our government protecting us from their own actions?

alasdair_ 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile Facebook (and others) make profiles of people that have never agreed to it, nor visited facebook in their lives. So do the credit reporting agencies, to a different extent.