3 ms·

Other than targeted advertising, how has private (I think you meant personally identifiable) information been productized? The only examples I can think of is

Other than targeted advertising, how has private (I think you meant personally identifiable) information been productized? The only examples I can think of is auto insurers buying your vehicle usage data, and creditors buying your borrowing data. I don’t know if cameras or the Internet has anything to do with either case.

ryukoposting 2y ago
Several car insurance companies in the United States (and perhaps elsewhere) have started pushing little devices that plug into your car's OBD2 port and narc on your for speeding, hard acceleration, etc. This is different from them buying vehicle data usage from third parties, because in this case they're "buying" it directly from the source, essentially for free. The entire junk debt collection industry. DeleteMe is a product that was made in response to the productization of PII, so that's an interesting footnote in this conversation as well.
sandworm101 2y ago
Political parties buying your browsing/buying habits to hit you up with political ads. Police buying your location data to see whether your were near a crime. Insurance companies will soon be buying data about your exercise routines so they can adjust your rates accordingly. And then there are the really creepy services. There was a service not long ago in Russia that would allow you to upload a picture of any woman you saw on the street. They would identify the face (via VK) and provide you with their contact and job information. Totally creepy. Totally abusive. But easily done with basic tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FindFace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FindFace
- chii 2y ago
  > Insurance companies will soon be buying data about your exercise routines so they can adjust your rates accordingly. if this results in lower insurance for those who are deemed to be healthier due to exercises, then it's a good outcome. Pricing insurance more accurately is almost always a good outcome.
  - pyrale 2y ago
    …Except, of course, for those who can no longer get insured. And those deemed at risk are not only people skipping jogging.
  - sandworm101 2y ago
    Unless you ride a bike, which dramatically increases your risk of physical injury in crashes. For a younger person, that makes you more risky.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      I suspect there are many activities that correlate to higher risk and many people would not like their insurance to come with a page of fine print of exclusions/fee adders associated with those activities even if it theoretically is more equitable. As you say, while there's probably some correlation between cycling and healthy activity in general, it's probably also an activity--depending on local infrastructure and where you cycle--that by itself adds risk of injury.
  - speed_spread 2y ago
    Insurance is about managing average risk for a population. The ones who end up not needing it necessarily paid more than they would have to, _in hindsight_. Varying the premiums across the insured population adds some fairness to the equation, but the moment it starts actually culling members of said population through outrageous pricing, it is just plain cheating.
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      All insurance specialises in certain groups. Regular holiday insurance is cheaper than snowboarding holiday insurance (and regular holiday insurance doesn't cover snowboarding). Why would this be different?
      - speed_spread 2y ago
        Because at some point insurance becomes a societal necessity and you need it to include everybody.
- arwineap 2y ago
  > There was a service not long ago in Russia that would allow you to upload a picture of any woman you saw on the street. They would identify the face (via VK) and provide you with their contact and job information Seems like gender technically wouldnt be a blocker, was that a product choice, or a marketing choice?
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    The wiki doesn't say anything gender-specific, so I'm guessing that this is just the casual inevitability of any new tech than an official spin. Some will use it to enable harassment, and women are proportionately targets of harassment.
justmaybemaybe 2y ago
Here is a good one. When one applies for a security clearance for a job in a large sector of the employment market or a gov job. All this data could be used.

ryukoposting 2y ago

Several car insurance companies in the United States (and perhaps elsewhere) have started pushing little devices that plug into your car's OBD2 port and narc on your for speeding, hard acceleration, etc. This is different from them buying vehicle data usage from third parties, because in this case they're "buying" it directly from the source, essentially for free. The entire junk debt collection industry. DeleteMe is a product that was made in response to the productization of PII, so that's an interesting footnote in this conversation as well.

sandworm101 2y ago

Political parties buying your browsing/buying habits to hit you up with political ads. Police buying your location data to see whether your were near a crime. Insurance companies will soon be buying data about your exercise routines so they can adjust your rates accordingly. And then there are the really creepy services. There was a service not long ago in Russia that would allow you to upload a picture of any woman you saw on the street. They would identify the face (via VK) and provide you with their contact and job information. Totally creepy. Totally abusive. But easily done with basic tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FindFace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FindFace

chii 2y ago
> Insurance companies will soon be buying data about your exercise routines so they can adjust your rates accordingly. if this results in lower insurance for those who are deemed to be healthier due to exercises, then it's a good outcome. Pricing insurance more accurately is almost always a good outcome.
- pyrale 2y ago
  …Except, of course, for those who can no longer get insured. And those deemed at risk are not only people skipping jogging.
- sandworm101 2y ago
  Unless you ride a bike, which dramatically increases your risk of physical injury in crashes. For a younger person, that makes you more risky.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    I suspect there are many activities that correlate to higher risk and many people would not like their insurance to come with a page of fine print of exclusions/fee adders associated with those activities even if it theoretically is more equitable. As you say, while there's probably some correlation between cycling and healthy activity in general, it's probably also an activity--depending on local infrastructure and where you cycle--that by itself adds risk of injury.
- speed_spread 2y ago
  Insurance is about managing average risk for a population. The ones who end up not needing it necessarily paid more than they would have to, _in hindsight_. Varying the premiums across the insured population adds some fairness to the equation, but the moment it starts actually culling members of said population through outrageous pricing, it is just plain cheating.
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    All insurance specialises in certain groups. Regular holiday insurance is cheaper than snowboarding holiday insurance (and regular holiday insurance doesn't cover snowboarding). Why would this be different?
    - speed_spread 2y ago
      Because at some point insurance becomes a societal necessity and you need it to include everybody.
arwineap 2y ago
> There was a service not long ago in Russia that would allow you to upload a picture of any woman you saw on the street. They would identify the face (via VK) and provide you with their contact and job information Seems like gender technically wouldnt be a blocker, was that a product choice, or a marketing choice?
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  The wiki doesn't say anything gender-specific, so I'm guessing that this is just the casual inevitability of any new tech than an official spin. Some will use it to enable harassment, and women are proportionately targets of harassment.

justmaybemaybe 2y ago

Here is a good one. When one applies for a security clearance for a job in a large sector of the employment market or a gov job. All this data could be used.