Apps watching you
- Started
- Last post
- 34 Responses
- epigraph0
If a news story/headline is trying to elicit fear you can pretty much assume it is propaganda.
- plash0
Is collecting data by itself bad? I think the important context of this article is what type of data is being collected. for Pandora (http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile...
it seems that mostly demographic information is being collected,
Age, Gender, City, DMA (Designated Market Area), ZIP Code and Phone ID.Outta of that list (imo) only Phone ID seem deemable as intrusive. and for that "free" account you do have pony up some information. no?
Plus just because a question is asked does not mean you have to answer it. so if you have a problem with you age being distributed, don't answer or don't answer correctly..
ffs you are the gate keeper of your personal information. Does your phone really need to know it?
- Boz0
I agree Plash, however if you want all this technology to actually work properly for you, you do kind of have to give it as accurate information as possible, otherwise it becomes quite a bit less useful.
For example.. I always put 1/1 of some year close to my age for information on profiles but then if you need to use those, or my friends want to be reminded to send me best wishes they will send it on a wrong date.
There's tons of stuff like this in the new wave of information.
I really don't have any problems with sharing information about my tastes, ratings and so on to improve services but the issue here is that this information is being SOLD.
We knew this was happening.. everyone saw it.. but nobody made a stink about it.. huge majority of people wants to be a star, wants to post their idiotic thoughts and what they ate in the morning or that they are going for holiday or similar but nobody was worried about privacy..
Now when companies are selling their information or are not legally bound to only use your online habits and usage of a system to improve their own services not to resell that stuff to others, everybody is SHOCKED how everyone knows everything about them.
This is what pisses me off.. people are fucking idiots who don't question or think about anything.. if they thought about what they are supporting or doing and raised a stink BEFORE these issues even arise (and yes that sometimes means sacrificing the coolness factor of a service or a product because they are essentially leading to a bad practice that will get you later), nobody does.
That's why I previously mentioned Apple too.. people are supporting these ass wipes now as they are creating some REALLY bad precedents in business practices and how they control you as consumer and then, when people realize they can't switch to anything else cause they spent tons and tons of cash on content that they can only view on Apple's products and now can't stop giving money to Apple without losing all the money they spent previously, they'll be like "WTF, I can't do this?! Boo Apple! How did this happen! OMG!" but then it's too late, because they were imbeciles to begin with blinded by shininess of Apple's idiotically named products and technologies like "magical", "retina" etc etc.
So I don't really pay attention to anything like this when it comes to privacy. People get what they deserve.. as you said, the only choice now is for you to lie and put in false information to bypass your real information being spread out and that's about it really.
Hopefully I'll make a new startup where you will be able to share your information and likes and dislikes about different things anonymously and I'll make billions, but responsibly :)
- raf0
"I recently read an article regarding the security of so-called “scrubbed” data. Netflix or some other company wanted to employ a third party to analyze some of their customers’ patterns of purchase — but as a precaution they removed (scrubbed) the customers’ names off the data. So theoretically, the people being analyzed were now abstract entities. However, out of curiosity they hired another company, to see if any of those unidentified customers could possibly be re-identified. It turned out they could. Not due to a fault of the scrubbing, or some security or software malfunction, but because other data and patterns of customer and citizen behavior were available online, and correlating these with the patterns of the anonymous customers led to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, the re-identification of many."
From "Internet Antichrist", an article by David Byrne
- raf0
- abettertomorrow0
I think you can get a little too paranoid about this stuff. Once you realize how much companies track people it is a little surprising, and as raf points out the anonymity thing is kind of a joke.
But then you're left with...what? They know your general personal info (age, gender etc), and maybe a little about your buying habits....big fuckin deal. Same thing most people have posted on their Facebook page.
Is there some scenario you can imagine where this leads to anything all that bad happening to you, lol? Worst is that happens is maybe they'll serve you one banner ad instead of another one. Which would happen anyway:)
- Dodecahedron0
When someone said that "we are the product" it is so true . You watch in the next few years how consumers are being herded around into consumerism and purchase choices they aren't even making anymore. The other side you should be paranoid about is that not only are they tracking this for marketing/ads they're tracking and processing information for political uses and larger (impersonal) national/international legal agendas.
- abettertomorrow0
Well, no one forced you to go on the internet you know. And yet, here we are.
- besides the pointDodecahedron
- Point is, the measures you can take are out there. There are anonymous ways to surf the web and so on.abettertomorrow
- You sound like a very indifferent person.Dodecahedron
- There will always be an excuse for you. I'm not sure you appreciate how drastically privacy and identity is going to be altered because of these companiesDodecahedron
- ..be altered because of these companies.Dodecahedron
- I I or you remain safe on the net they will continue to change laws and infiltrate sovergn societies with informationDodecahedron
- ...information technologies.Dodecahedron
- * If I or you... "Dodecahedron
- formed0
Dode nails it - the scary part is not about silly things like what color shirts I like, it is about what the info could be used for.
And if we all just shrug and say something stupid like 'if you don't have anything to hide...' then it will surely continue to get worse. I am not some conspiracy junkie, but I don't like all of my personal info available to anyone that wants it.
For me, it is about business. I will never use Pandora because of this, for example, nor will I purchase any of the apps listed in the article. I will also expect Apple to announce a privacy policy that they enforce. So, while some companies clearly make a lot off selling this data, they've also lost me as a customer (and surely I won't be the only one).
- drgs0
- abettertomorrow0
But here's the thing formed...despite what you saying, there's never been any kind of vendetta against any of us personally for its own sake.
Which isn't to say that there aren't companies taking advantage of consumers constantly, but these companies really do want to sell T shirts at the end of the day. And the info they are able to collect about people that is actually usable (demographic stuff like location, gender, and income) is useful for exactly that purpose, trying (most unsuccessfully) to sell you stuff.
Its annoying but more on the level of spam advertising than people coming to your house to take you away. The government knows all that basic stuff about us anyway, and the rest of it isn't really all that interesting, at least I have trouble seeing how it could be.
- You're confusing what the government knows and might have a right to know and what a zillion private 3rd party companies know.Dodecahedron
- ...companies know. Konw it or not citizens of a free countries have a right to protection against people exploiting info.Dodecahedron
- Its not about individuals its about everyone's info.Dodecahedron
- Absolutely, but only if there's a law against it, right? I guess it's hard to motivate people around something like this:)abettertomorrow
- formed0
The data is for sale, no? So anyone could buy it, just like a email/address list, and use it for whatever purpose they want.
- 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
