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China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

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Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#21

Post by throwaway91111 »

yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

Do any credit card services not do this? It's really unnerving to see recent purchases when browsing online.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#22

Post by lsmarigo »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #21
yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

Do any credit card services not do this? It's really unnerving to see recent purchases when browsing online.

Don't know of anyway to avoid this other than using cash. The speed the sharing takes place is pretty insane as well, I've made purchases of a new brand of X item at my local grocery chain only to have amazon suggest the exact item to me on the same day.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#23

Post by joering2 »

yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

So on my statement, you see a random number of transactions for random amount, all from Amazon. I would rarely call it "surveillance at micro level" when you don't even know what I've bought.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#24

Post by troyastorino »

rosser wrote: post #7
sneak wrote: post #4

It is precisely the same in the United States, it is just somewhat deniable there due to things like the FISA court. It allows peoples' inherent belief in American virtue to doublethink themselves into believing that the NSA doesn't collect this high-res data in bulk from Facebook and Google and Amazon and Apple and the mobile carriers—when we have clear documents showing that they do. LOVEINT is real. The large soci…

> Your doctor or hospital hosts data in AWS? Pretty sure HIPAA doesn't count in this case. False. I work for a company in the education space that uses AWS. We're unambiguously bound by FERPA. It is inconceivable to me that a stricter law like HIPAA wouldn't also bind cloud-based companies. EDIT: Moreover: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/hipaa-compliance/

HIPAA is actually pretty terrible in terms of protecting your privacy from government agencies (or from insurers). It can require covered entities (health care providers, plans, or clearinghouses and buisness associates) to hand over medical information to law enforment officials without patient consent, and can even ban covered entiities from informing patients about disclosures under some cirumstances.

The EFF has a lot more detail here: https://www.eff.org/issues/medical-privacy and more specifically: https://www.eff.org/issues/law-enforcement-access

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#25

Post by yueq »

schuke wrote: post #16
yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

The thing in China is that so many trivial daily activities require government-issued ID. Buying a coach/train ticket. Buying a SIM card. Every website/mobile app registration require a mobile phone number, which means any account is easily traceable to your government-issued ID, too. Hell, even visiting your friend in a hotel requires recording your ID before hotel staff will let you go upstairs (strictly enforced i…

The key issue is the data is on sale or not or potentially could be sold.

Agencies collecting data is totally fine. No one can avoid it in this world nowadays. Showing IDs seems very old-school. Remember PRISM? As long as one is using a smartphone, they are being tracked every single second.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#27

Post by arbuge »

yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

Indeed, and the effects of this are visible everywhere. In the advertising systems of Google and Facebook, for example, you can target individuals according to their buying patterns - whether they've recently bought furniture, trips overseas, etc. The source of that data is information from credit card transactions.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#28

Post by plaguuuuuu »

jilljennV wrote: post #26

I was really surprised to see my Chinese friend pay the restaurant bill using WeChat, just by flashing a QR code. Which means they know all the data a typical social network can handle, but also how much you are paying where.

I keep voicing concerns about Google Wallet in that respect but nobody takes it seriously.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#29

Post by pkaeding »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #21
yueq wrote: post #11

Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…

Do any credit card services not do this? It's really unnerving to see recent purchases when browsing online.

This could also be ad retargeting. You'll often see ads for things you looked at, but did not buy.

Re: China has wealth of data on what individuals are doing at a micro level

#30

Post by velodrome »

suprgeek wrote: post #20

This our terrifying future in America - the incoming administration has very scant regard for civil liberties, and is filled with business insiders who worship money above all else. Add to this the fact that both legislative chambers are controlled by the same party who is "tough" on crime. For profit or to ostensibly address Terrorism expect surveillance to get much worse.

> the incoming administration has very scant regard for civil liberties

Sorry, they were eroded long before. This is why people must remain vigilant whether it is the person they voted for or not.

http://images.dailykos.com/images/330962/story_image/1249.pn...

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