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Credit cards have a privacy problem

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Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? My Google account isn't connected to my personally identifiable information in any way. I.e. they don't have my phone number, nor do I use Google Pay.

> How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now). There's also their wallet, app store, voice, broadband, phone plan, etc. Some people will dodge all of that, but most won't.

> Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now)

I just created a new Google account without a phone number 10 seconds ago. Phone number was optional and of course I didn't provide it.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now). There's also their wallet, app store, voice, broadband, phone plan, etc. Some people will dodge all of that, but most won't.

Don't forget location data.

Even if they do (for Android users only), how would they connect location data to my credit card history? Are you claiming that Google reverse engineers PII by correlating Android location data with credit card purchase location history?

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#93
post #20

>"We don't sell your data, we share it." -all the companies involved Am I the only one thinking there might be some Clapper-level double-speak going on here? Why would these company share admittedly valuable data without being compensated? A question for contract lawyers: can I sell something (say an API or quarterly report) that "incidentally" includes customer data and get away with saying I'm not "selling customer…

Definitely not a lawyer, but "sell" to me implies you lose ownership afterward, so as long as they're not doing that, they're not selling. Easy to see how they can give someone your data without doing that.

Software, music, movies and many other products are sold through different media — physical or over the network — those are also referred to as selling, but what they sell is a license to use for specific purposes, without losing ownership, copyright, IP, patents, etc.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#94

Yup, do-no-evil Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an... Companies need to start thinking of this less in the lens of "evil" and more principle of least astonishment. Would users be surprised and angry to learn you do this? Then don't.

> Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? My Google account isn't connected to my personally identifiable information in any way. I.e. they don't have my phone number, nor do I use Google Pay.

Google has the phone numbers of almost everyone, because practically everyone is in the address book of someone who uses an Android phone.

Google makes sure that if you don't hand over your data to them, someone else will.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#95

Yup, do-no-evil Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an... Companies need to start thinking of this less in the lens of "evil" and more principle of least astonishment. Would users be surprised and angry to learn you do this? Then don't.

> Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? My Google account isn't connected to my personally identifiable information in any way. I.e. they don't have my phone number, nor do I use Google Pay.

I feel like it would be pretty easy to link together an online purchase with the confirmation email to my Gmail account using purchase location / time of purchase / price.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? My Google account isn't connected to my personally identifiable information in any way. I.e. they don't have my phone number, nor do I use Google Pay.

Google has the phone numbers of almost everyone, because practically everyone is in the address book of someone who uses an Android phone. Google makes sure that if you don't hand over your data to them, someone else will.

How do they connect phone numbers in Android users' phone book to their respective Gmail accounts?

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now). There's also their wallet, app store, voice, broadband, phone plan, etc. Some people will dodge all of that, but most won't.

> Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now) I just created a new Google account without a phone number 10 seconds ago. Phone number was optional and of course I didn't provide it.

It's only optional if they are already pretty sure they know who you are.

If you try to sign up using Tor, for example, it's not optional.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now). There's also their wallet, app store, voice, broadband, phone plan, etc. Some people will dodge all of that, but most won't.

> Most people have a phone number with google for gmail (you didn't need one in the beginning, but do now) I just created a new Google account without a phone number 10 seconds ago. Phone number was optional and of course I didn't provide it.

You do need one if they can’t already identify you from your data.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#99

Yup, do-no-evil Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-an... Companies need to start thinking of this less in the lens of "evil" and more principle of least astonishment. Would users be surprised and angry to learn you do this? Then don't.

> Google buys your credit card data for advertising purposes How do they connect my credit card data to my Google activity? My Google account isn't connected to my personally identifiable information in any way. I.e. they don't have my phone number, nor do I use Google Pay.

There are lots of suggestions here of how it's done but it's essentially really really simple.

There are 2 pieces of information that need to be joined.Google have your cookie and email and MasterCard have your address and probably email. If both sides have your email then job done. If not then they can use your physical address via a data broker. All it needs is some e-commerce sites that allow cookie syncing and have a privacy policy that allow them to sell that part of your data.

Re: Credit cards have a privacy problem

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has the phone numbers of almost everyone, because practically everyone is in the address book of someone who uses an Android phone. Google makes sure that if you don't hand over your data to them, someone else will.

How do they connect phone numbers in Android users' phone book to their respective Gmail accounts?

Because my friend Bob is in my contacts as Bob@Gmail.com and also as 0123456789.
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