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Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

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Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#151

Post by rectang »

stef25 wrote: post #138
reilly3000 wrote: post #92

Information inequity. Whomever has access to this data had an advantage on 340M people, and opportunity to understand and influence them. I think the antithesis of would be information redistribution. Everybody should be entitled to access all of this information if anyone has it. Just for fun lets say the only caveat is that all information access is also public and linked to each identity. Do you think its better o…

Companies are in some cases (in many cases actually) perfectly allowed to collect user information and from a business perspective would be stupid not to do. Every time you use a loyalty card that information is collected and yes it's used to understand you and perhaps even influence you, to buy certain products. Buying diapers? Have a look at these baby toys. Most people will throw their personal information out the…

> The problem here is the leak, not the fact that it exists.

The fact that the information exists guarantees that it will leak. If not from one company, from the next.

Personal information is like hazardous chemicals.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#152

Post by krageon »

stef25 wrote: post #138
reilly3000 wrote: post #92

Information inequity. Whomever has access to this data had an advantage on 340M people, and opportunity to understand and influence them. I think the antithesis of would be information redistribution. Everybody should be entitled to access all of this information if anyone has it. Just for fun lets say the only caveat is that all information access is also public and linked to each identity. Do you think its better o…

Companies are in some cases (in many cases actually) perfectly allowed to collect user information and from a business perspective would be stupid not to do. Every time you use a loyalty card that information is collected and yes it's used to understand you and perhaps even influence you, to buy certain products. Buying diapers? Have a look at these baby toys. Most people will throw their personal information out the…

Just like with weapons of a more physical nature, the problem is that they exist. The fact that they exist means that over time they/it will fall into the wrong hands. The obvious and natural solution to this is to not have them exist, or in this case to not have this database exist.

Yes, I understand companies are allowed to do it. That's beside the point - just because they are allowed to right now doesn't make it right.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#153

Post by krageon »

axaxs wrote: post #14

When will this stop? When's the last straw? If I gave a bank 100 dollars, and they lost it, I'd have avenues with which to pursue some sort of justice. If I give a company my data, and they lose it, oh well. I wish all personal data was treated like HIPAA, at a minimum.

It will not stop, simply because there is a ton of money in not having it stop.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#154

Post by ur-whale »

mulmen wrote: post #145
stef25 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies are in some cases (in many cases actually) perfectly allowed to collect user information and from a business perspective would be stupid not to do. Every time you use a loyalty card that information is collected and yes it's used to understand you and perhaps even influence you, to buy certain products. Buying diapers? Have a look at these baby toys. Most people will throw their personal information out the…

When did I buy diapers from Exactis? I’ve never even heard of them. I know exactly what my Safeway card is used for. I also deliberately do not register my phone number or other information to it. Of course they can probably associate it with my credit card but these things are easy to reason about. The real problem is combining all these datasets in one place for the purpose of perpetuating information asymmetry as…

You seem to believe you can ward off information collection efforts by controlling yourself what you do and do not communicate to the rest of the world.

While I sincerely admire the quixotic effort, I suspect you are fighting a losing battle.

There are countless situations in daily life where you have no choice but to leak some tiny bit of information about yourself to an external database, and from there on, it's just a matter of cobbling the bits back together.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#155

Post by krageon »

extradego wrote: post #64
zeth___ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so many people are convinced the market will save them from the marker given the last 300 years oh history is beyond me.

In America, they simply do not know the last 300 years of history.

Practically everyone knows about the second world war, but nothing is being done about rising fascism. It has nothing to do with not knowing, it's just stupidity.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#156

Post by pilsetnieks »

ur-whale wrote: post #154
mulmen wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did I buy diapers from Exactis? I’ve never even heard of them. I know exactly what my Safeway card is used for. I also deliberately do not register my phone number or other information to it. Of course they can probably associate it with my credit card but these things are easy to reason about. The real problem is combining all these datasets in one place for the purpose of perpetuating information asymmetry as…

You seem to believe you can ward off information collection efforts by controlling yourself what you do and do not communicate to the rest of the world. While I sincerely admire the quixotic effort, I suspect you are fighting a losing battle. There are countless situations in daily life where you have no choice but to leak some tiny bit of information about yourself to an external database, and from there on, it's ju…

> and from there on, it's just a matter of cobbling the bits back together

Maybe it shouldn't be. The bit of info I gave about myself I gave (even if implicitly) to a specific entity for a specific purpose. To sell or give that bit to another unrelated, unknown to me entity for an entirely different purpose is a violation.

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#157

Post by ur-whale »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #156
ur-whale wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to believe you can ward off information collection efforts by controlling yourself what you do and do not communicate to the rest of the world. While I sincerely admire the quixotic effort, I suspect you are fighting a losing battle. There are countless situations in daily life where you have no choice but to leak some tiny bit of information about yourself to an external database, and from there on, it's ju…

> and from there on, it's just a matter of cobbling the bits back together Maybe it shouldn't be. The bit of info I gave about myself I gave (even if implicitly) to a specific entity for a specific purpose. To sell or give that bit to another unrelated, unknown to me entity for an entirely different purpose is a violation.

I agree.

But there's unfortunately no regulation in place to insure that.

And if there were, GDPR style, there would still be the matter of:

    - enforceability

    - exceptions for to e.g. authorities

Re: Marketing Firm Exactis Leaked a Personal Info Database with 340M Records

#160

Post by hopeless »

A lot of people complained that GDPR was too onerous on small firms and that they should be exempt. According to LinkedIn https://ie.linkedin.com/company/exactis-llc Exactis has just 10 employees (obviously some error possible. Call it 15-20?)

Now do you think small firms can’t hold large quantities of damaging data?

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