Apps watching you
Out of context: Reply #34
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- abettertomorrow0
Yeah, but what have they got that is at all useful? The info that ad networks and other sites are able to collect right now boils down to a few demographic type metrics - things like home city, gender, age and maybe a couple others.
The one thing it's at all useful for is automated mass advertising - serve a male user from high income neighborhood this ad, serve a female from somewhere else a different one. It's just hard for me to imagine anyone using that kind of info in any actual threatening way even if they wanted to.
The more troubling part for me is the lack of awareness that this data, like you said, is being commercialized. But it's really easy to make all of this seem super ominous, when in fact there is actually a positive aspect to all of this, which is companies being able to offer completely free services to consumers.
- all well and good, just give me the option to purchase or notformed