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Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

latimes.com

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Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#111

Post by amelius »

nsebban wrote: post #100
akavel wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the Wikipedia summary, and it appears to me, that GDPR only requires encryption, not anonymisation, of personal data! Or did I miss something?

It also requires trivial opt-out and readability of the opt-ins. And it gives enough power to really control what companies are doing with people's data. And the fines are huge (up to 3% of the company's global gross amount) compared to what exists today.

Can users still be manipulated to opt-in to a service X if they want a service Y badly enough? I.e., you can only use Y if you also take X?

How many people would opt-out of (or not opt-in to) a service like Google search?

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#112

Post by adjkant »

TheBobinator wrote: post #73
adjkant wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either. Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least…

Yes, you are missing something. You are the product. By using these services, your beliefs, habits, work, and by extension you yourself, are slowly being turned into a product for consumption by, at best, profiteering business executives, and at worst, totalitarian regimes. Does facebook want you to find and actually spend time with people? No, they want you hooked on their website endlessly posting cat pictures and…

> "You are the product."

From a business perspective, yes.

The rest of this is a lot of nonsense.

I don't want to dismiss it as completely paranoid, because I know it isn't fully. Many of these things could be or are happening (I would likely say fewer are in existence now than you I'm sure). The difference is that I don't really mind that much.

Your view of advertising is quite terrible. It doesn't work that perfectly. I've never had a Coke in my life, but I know their brand because of their effective advertising. My happiness has never once been affected by it. If you are able to parse advertising language, the messages are clear, and the bad messages just become laughable.

Of course companies have motives all centered around profit - welcome to capitalism, for better or worse.

> "If you opt out, you retain your freedom to think for yourself, act for yourself, and be yourself. You retain your ability to be content and happy. You get to have real friends. You no longer exist in the 7th circle of hell."

You can also be "in" and still be able to think, act, and be yourself. You just need to be aware that you're in. I'd be a lot more affected by trying to opt out rather than the mental filtering that anyone who's aware trains themselves with. Not to mention that this has nothing to do with real friendships.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#113

Post by H4CK3RM4N »

Moru wrote: post #101
waibelp wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's quite normal here in Germany. A lot of people I know still only pay with cash because most of the people are skeptical about data that may be used against them. Sure, there are a lot of young people (born >=2000) sharing everything and paying everything with card but the older ones still care about their privacy. That means a safe way I and a lot of people prefer is to get a bunch of cash from a cashpoint and…

Germany is one of the few countries that has recently seen the reality of what tracking can lead to if the wrong people end up in power. So the question is, do you trust Trump or whoever comes after him? My main gripe with shopping in Germany is everyone is standing there at the cash-register trying to find the correct ammount of cash to pay. There is a large amount of different coins you have to sorth through and th…

Was there really any need to include a remark comparing Trump to Hitler?

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#114

Post by H4CK3RM4N »

wavefunction wrote: post #22
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading an article a few years ago about Facebook doing this. It's also why some merchants will ask for your phone number, even if you pay in cash. With your phone number, the merchant can identify you. In Facebook's case, they know what ads they show you online, then they can tie any subsequent purchases tagged with your phone number back to your FB account.

Sounds like another company claiming credit for something it didn't actually do. facebook showed me ChristianMingle ads for years despite marking myself as agnostic. I have a fair amount of experience with the Ad-words network and all I can see of facebook's ad network and target is that it sucks. I've never seen any place I've worked have much success deriving any meaningful value from facebook ads.

I would guess that Christian Mingle specified an age/location target, and assumed the name would filter out non-Christians from clicking(and therefore the company wouldn't have to pay).

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#115

Post by rsto »

syphilis2 wrote: post #70

I'm interested to read about where people believe this progression of technology will take us in the near and far future. Are there thought out considerations of what type of world we are heading towards? Has Google revealed their vision of advertising for 2032? I don't mean this rhetorically, I genuinely want to know what vision there is for advertising in the future because I believe it's something we really ought…

Jaron Lanier writes about this in his book "Who Owns the Future" [1]

Disclaimer: I haven't read it yet, so can't say if it meets your "thought out considerations" criteria.

[1] https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25424120M/Who_Owns_the_Futur...

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#116

Post by Symbiote »

qkls wrote: post #78
alltakendamned wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality in the Nordics is already that most people never use cash. I cannot recall making a cash transaction in the past 18 months.

I use cash mainly for convenience at yard sales and crowded bars/events in Finland. There's not many situations you'd need cash if you live in a big city, even yard sale transactions can be made with mobilepay. It's mostly older people using cash anymore.

In Denmark, in a noisy, busy bar, a card payment (especially contactless) is easier -- I don't need to hear the amount from the barman (obviously a challenge in Danish even in ideal circumstances...) and the barman doesn't need to return to me with the change.

The primary use of cash is shopping in Christiania.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#117

Post by germanier »

biafra wrote: post #104
Guest98123 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a store in my city that just opened a few weeks ago. They advertise as being paperless and cash free, and only accept debit/credit. I think it's the first time I went to a store that refused cash.

AFAIK in Germany merchants have an obligation to accept cash. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargeld#Rechtsfragen

Only to settle existing debt. If they say "No cash accepted" they could do their business that way (and have no customers). As an extension, gas stations are allowed to refuse large bills if they put out a sign (and the all do).

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#118

Post by kevsim »

nsebban wrote: post #100
akavel wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read the Wikipedia summary, and it appears to me, that GDPR only requires encryption, not anonymisation, of personal data! Or did I miss something?

It also requires trivial opt-out and readability of the opt-ins. And it gives enough power to really control what companies are doing with people's data. And the fines are huge (up to 3% of the company's global gross amount) compared to what exists today.

Think it's actually 4%. Seriously huge fines

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#120

Post by adjkant »

gub09 wrote: post #66

This is probably an unusual opinion, but for me privacy is similar to freedom. Freedom is usually defined as a negative: people are free of oppression, have freedom of speech (freedom from speech being constrained), freedom of movement (not forced to stay in one place), religious freedom (freedom to believe what one will and not be limited in practice or assembly), etc. Privacy is the freedom from being watched, from…

I think it's important to note the definition of privacy you use is important.

For me, in my daily life, all of this is completely "private". Google having my data in mass and an identity profile on me that no human will ever specifically look at is just as good as private to me. The fact that computers will be handing this data, not other humans, is an important distinction for me. No human will ever see my individual data in all likelihood.

I don't think the lack of privacy is a problem, but rather the centralized power. It's really tough right now with so much power in information, but the only real information power coming in volume.

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