3 ms·

> The last time I pulled up my Google profile, it said I was a 18-99yo, both male and female, and was interested in EVERY topic they listed. So you see how dat

by 0x457 3y ago

> The last time I pulled up my Google profile, it said I was a 18-99yo, both male and female, and was interested in EVERY topic they listed. So you see how data-brokers having this data on you is equal to not having any data on you if their data is garbage?

gigel82 3y ago
Data brokers rarely collect from ad companies. They buy in bulk from the states who are all too happy to sell them driver licensing data, plus property records and other public sources.
- autoexec 3y ago
  They get data from anywhere and everywhere they can. They also get ad data from your internet history which most ISPs are happy to sell to them.
margalabargala 3y ago
Depends. Is your goal to not show up on lists, or to show up on lists above and beyond the ones that are "true"? Asking for a list of smokers? You'll pop up. Ask for a list of pregnant women? There you are. Likely gun owners? You're on that list too. None of the people requesting these lists are checking the rest of that person's profile to look for conflicts. They just feed all the profiles into the data machine and run everything en masse. So does this prevent the data brokers from having an accurate profile on you? Sure. But it is absolutely not equal to them having no data on you.
- 0x457 3y ago
  If we all non-smokers show up on a smokers list - There is zero downside for me, but someone is going to waste money targeting me as a smoker. Will it narrow down if someone is trying to track me? Probably.
  - autoexec 3y ago
    > If we all non-smokers show up on a smokers list - There is zero downside for me Except for when your health insurance company sees that and starts charging you more because of it, or your life insurance rates go up because of it, or your homeowners insurance goes up because of it, or your employer forces you into a smoking cessation program because they made you sign some kind of "smoke free pledge" for their own insurance reasons and now they think you're lying, or when someone decides not to date you because the background check they ran on you made them think you lied in your online dating profile when you said you didn't smoke, or when society gets real weird in the future and smoking goes from being "unacceptable in public" to "child abuse" and now CPS is wanting to investigate you, or who the hell knows what other thing could come and bite you in the ass now that you've got "smoker" in your permanent record and everybody feels entitled to dig into your personal business whenever they think it might give them some advantage. That's the world we live in. Anybody willing to pay gets to look into the most intimate parts of your life that are none of their business and that ends up affecting your life in ways you'll never see coming and you'll probably not even know why or when it's happening. The more data you put out there for people to find, they more they'll find ways to screw you over with it.
    - 0x457 3y ago
      Then I'm probably going to get 50 bucks from a class action against that insurance company in a few years.

by 0x457 3y ago

gigel82 3y ago

Data brokers rarely collect from ad companies. They buy in bulk from the states who are all too happy to sell them driver licensing data, plus property records and other public sources.

autoexec 3y ago
They get data from anywhere and everywhere they can. They also get ad data from your internet history which most ISPs are happy to sell to them.

margalabargala 3y ago

Depends. Is your goal to not show up on lists, or to show up on lists above and beyond the ones that are "true"? Asking for a list of smokers? You'll pop up. Ask for a list of pregnant women? There you are. Likely gun owners? You're on that list too. None of the people requesting these lists are checking the rest of that person's profile to look for conflicts. They just feed all the profiles into the data machine and run everything en masse. So does this prevent the data brokers from having an accurate profile on you? Sure. But it is absolutely not equal to them having no data on you.

0x457 3y ago
If we all non-smokers show up on a smokers list - There is zero downside for me, but someone is going to waste money targeting me as a smoker. Will it narrow down if someone is trying to track me? Probably.
- autoexec 3y ago
  > If we all non-smokers show up on a smokers list - There is zero downside for me Except for when your health insurance company sees that and starts charging you more because of it, or your life insurance rates go up because of it, or your homeowners insurance goes up because of it, or your employer forces you into a smoking cessation program because they made you sign some kind of "smoke free pledge" for their own insurance reasons and now they think you're lying, or when someone decides not to date you because the background check they ran on you made them think you lied in your online dating profile when you said you didn't smoke, or when society gets real weird in the future and smoking goes from being "unacceptable in public" to "child abuse" and now CPS is wanting to investigate you, or who the hell knows what other thing could come and bite you in the ass now that you've got "smoker" in your permanent record and everybody feels entitled to dig into your personal business whenever they think it might give them some advantage. That's the world we live in. Anybody willing to pay gets to look into the most intimate parts of your life that are none of their business and that ends up affecting your life in ways you'll never see coming and you'll probably not even know why or when it's happening. The more data you put out there for people to find, they more they'll find ways to screw you over with it.
  - 0x457 3y ago
    Then I'm probably going to get 50 bucks from a class action against that insurance company in a few years.