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Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

latimes.com

221–230 of 252 posts

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#221
post #213
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…

When you say 'freedom', you mean 'liberty'. Read up on the words and the Federalist Papers - you'll enjoy it.

Isaiah Berlin on Negative Freedom too

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#222
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Think it's actually 4%. Seriously huge fines

And we'd all be delighted with taxes as low as 15%!

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#223
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

[deleted]

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#224
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After studying the slides, it looks like they do a Diffie Hellman-like exchange of user identifiers. g_i = Google's identifier for customer i. s_j = Merchant identifer for customer j. If g_i == s_j then customer i == j. These identifiers might be phone numbers or email addresses or other identifiers that both parties have. Neither party wants the other to learn any identifiers it doesn't already known about. So Googl…

It's not a new and a very common process. A personal identifying variable is calculated in the same way on both sides (usually by a third party), then hashed. Hashed values are then compared/matched.

What makes you think they are just comparing hashes and not this diffie hellman algorithm that they say they have been using?

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point was that it's usually said in a derogatory fashion, insinuating that European innovation suffers as a result of this.

Those also aren't strictly tied together. I absolutely believe that EU's internet regulations make it less desirable to start interesting new internet companies there. In many cases, I would also gladly trade that for the benefits of being an individual living under such a system.

Indeed, but again the point is that it's usually said, so as to imply that the EU suffers from these policies.

Whether or not that's actually the case is a different question. To your point, it's a much less cut-and-dry question as well.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#226
It's worth seeing the information from the source. The talk[0] and the blog post[1]. Plus, as Engadget called out[2] in an update, you can opt-out by contacting your credit card company, and there are more details at the FTC[3].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkRJqnQ2T8&19m05s

[1] https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/05/powering-ads-and-anal...

[2] https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/23/google-track-shopping-tr...

[3] https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0222-privacy-choices-y...

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#227
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 individu…

Metadata is surveillance

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#228
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the definition of privacy you use is important Yes, it is. Defining privacy to mean the very opposite of "private" is pure doublethink/newspeak. > Google having my data You're not giving your data only to google. You're also giving it to anybody that hacks Google's servers to take their data at any point in the future (and anybody that buys it from the hackers), and any government (or other entity with sufficient p…

I agree with what you are saying but given the probabilities (I don't see the big 5 having a significant data breach any time soon) it is something I'm willing to trade off or sacrifice so to speak. I guess the ideal scenario would be that all corporation and the government does not store my data, even anonymously. But this is unrealistic and I haven't bothered looking for alternatives that are safer/have more privac…

These events are not improbable imo. They are inevitable.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#229
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 individu…

How incredibly naive.

Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores

#230
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the definition of privacy you use is important Yes, it is. Defining privacy to mean the very opposite of "private" is pure doublethink/newspeak. > Google having my data You're not giving your data only to google. You're also giving it to anybody that hacks Google's servers to take their data at any point in the future (and anybody that buys it from the hackers), and any government (or other entity with sufficient p…

I agree with what you are saying but given the probabilities (I don't see the big 5 having a significant data breach any time soon) it is something I'm willing to trade off or sacrifice so to speak. I guess the ideal scenario would be that all corporation and the government does not store my data, even anonymously. But this is unrealistic and I haven't bothered looking for alternatives that are safer/have more privac…

I emphatically opt out of all of Google's services and tracking. I have done everything I can to avoid having them track me, short of quitting my job (we use google apps at work...).

When you (I think, naively) traded your privacy and freedom for their services, you also traded a bit of my privacy and freedom, and that is unacceptable to me.

The same can be said about any of the other big surveillance capitalism companies (facebook, microsoft, etc).

I don't know why you think they will only hypothetically use this information against you. You are bombarded with machine generated attempts at psychological manipulation on a daily basis, and your private information is regularly leaked/sold to bad actors and out of control law enforcement agencies on a continuous basis.

You even say you are lucky you are not a political dissident, so you admit that, in your own mind, you have given up the right to participate in our democracy as you see fit.

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