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Please Sell My Personal Information

taylor.town

11–20 of 105 posts

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#11
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

> and there's no way to keep my data private anyway

This is learned helplessness. Instead of giving up we should mete multi(m|b)illion fines to corporations who think that your data is theirs https://noyb.eu/en/breaking-meta-prohibited-use-personal-dat...

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#12
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

The thing is that your personal information doesn't just subject you to targeted ads. It also makes you vulnerable to propaganda, behavioral modification, and all sorts of psychological manipulation. Advertisers have known this for decades, and the internet has given them the perfect delivery method.

While you can't be entirely invisible online, you can certainly make things more difficult for adtech by changing some of your tech usage habits. Avoiding psychological manipulation is a worthwhile and achievable goal.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#13
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

Then it should be opt-in. You are free to post your personal info online.

> Then it should be opt-in.

GDPR

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#14
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

Then it should be opt-in. You are free to post your personal info online.

https://xkcd.com/1977/

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#16
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

Same here.

They have our data somehow anyways, and will always find clever non-direct ways to access it. They will also show me and I think it's fair for most free services/websites.

At least let those ads be interesting for me: which is a good thing; I've discovered and bought many goods from ads.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#17
post #4

in all seriousness, i'll take the contrary opinion, i love targeted ads. saves me time, and there's no way to keep my data private anyway, so i might as well get some value out of it. i wish there were a browser plugin called "please accept all cookies" which would just get rid of the friction, and as a downstream fringe benefit, show me better ads.

Do you love targeted pricing too? Like user X is more likely to buy product Y so make the price +10%. It’s a good thing that targeted pricing is illegal in many places, but oh wait, there’s an AI pricing layer which cannot be reverse engineered so evidence of price targeting can’t be found. The problem with user data is it lasts forever, and as the political and technological environment further shifts into "profit-friendliness", your user profile will grow and be more and more valuable as it provides more advantages to the counter-parties you’ll be trading with in the course of your life. It will likely affect your insurance premiums, your interest rates, your every day purchases, but I guess it’s worth it for those swell ads.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#18
post #15

I cannot believe we are still in this ridiculous situation with these dreadful cookie approvals on Every. Single. Page. How did we let Europe do this to us?

> How did we let Europe do this to us?

Blaming the EU for this feels pretty disingenuous. GDPR is definitely well-intentioned and in the interest of the consumers, the horribly annoying popups you get everywhere are just a form of malicious compliance from companies who want to track you anyway and make opting out as annoying as possible.

Note that it's perfectly fine to have a page without a cookie popup. HN doesn't have one, for example. It's just not in the interest of companies to forgo user tracking.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#19

Recently I contacted Citi bank which kept sending me spam, including "bank statements" I could not access, which makes perfect sense given that I don't have an account with them. I was told that they had no record of me and that if I want to be super duper sure they're right I should send a physical letter with a scan of my Id to their offices. After another few months of getting spammed by them, I sent them a GDPR d…

The exact same kafkaesque situation is what inspired me to write this post! I don't want to send my personal information in a "delete my personal info" form to organizations who I never trusted with my data in the first place

Dozens of new privacy laws have been passed in the last few years. In some cases, there are now severe financial penalties associated with non-compliance. This has started to empower internal teams within companies (who want to do the right thing) to actually do the right thing, and follow both the letter and spirit of these laws. I'm part of a project to build a global "delete me" button so I have insight into a range of different responses. Most companies still tend to be maliciously compliant or they simply ignore the request, but I'd be comfortable sending them my data. There are definitely bad actors out there for whom you're probably better off not sending them any request at all. Progress is slow but it's headed in the right direction.

Re: Please Sell My Personal Information

#20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exact same kafkaesque situation is what inspired me to write this post! I don't want to send my personal information in a "delete my personal info" form to organizations who I never trusted with my data in the first place

Dozens of new privacy laws have been passed in the last few years. In some cases, there are now severe financial penalties associated with non-compliance. This has started to empower internal teams within companies (who want to do the right thing) to actually do the right thing, and follow both the letter and spirit of these laws. I'm part of a project to build a global "delete me" button so I have insight into a ran…

Thank you for the insight! I think a lot of people would be interested in a global "delete me" button.

Where can I get updates on your project?

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