I think a great example of why data privacy matters was the recent concern many American women had about whether data collected by their period tracking app could be used to persecute them for abortions. While you might believe that the data being collected about you is harmless, a government hostile to you could use that data against you with great effect.
So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
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Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#12The issue isn't just targeted ads though. This data, once in the hands of google, is packaged and resold to whomever google pleases, for whatever purposes those parties see fit - not even to mention inevitable breaches. Not google, but see the whole healthcare data fiasco lately with apps using facebook's analytics API's as an example.
Out of curiosity, what are some examples of Google packaging and reselling data?
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#13Meh, I'm still not convinced. I mean, I suppose I get possibly being creeped out that Google knows you prefer Pepsi over Coke and that you recently purchased an adult toy or whatever, but...meh? So they'll use that data to sell me targeted ads that I'm just going to block anyways. I just don't see how it's actually harmful beyond the government access issue that's just dropped in as a single sentence at the end of on…
> I get possibly being creeped out that Google knows you prefer Pepsi over Coke and that you recently purchased an adult toy or whatever
Frankly, if I preferred Pepsi over Coke, I'd rather get ads (which sometimes include discounts/coupons) for Pepsi than for Coke.
Similarly, if I bought an adult toy, I'd rather get ads for similar adult toys than ads for .
I'm definitely pro-privacy, but it's got nothing to do with "so I can't be shown relevant ads".
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#14Meh, I'm still not convinced. I mean, I suppose I get possibly being creeped out that Google knows you prefer Pepsi over Coke and that you recently purchased an adult toy or whatever, but...meh? So they'll use that data to sell me targeted ads that I'm just going to block anyways. I just don't see how it's actually harmful beyond the government access issue that's just dropped in as a single sentence at the end of on…
My government certainly doesn't care what sex toys I buy; but there are some bronze plaques in the pavement around here, dedicated to victims of the earlier of the two times the government was evil and sent people to their deaths for such things; and I've been to the museum made from the headquarters of the people responsible for the second time it was evil and spied on anyone and everyone.
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#15If they are collecting so much data why do the ads still suck? I bought a pixel 7a and I still get ads for it all the time. You would think that google would know that I already bought a google phone from them.
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#16Obviously in a very small minority here but I decided almost 10 years ago to give them as much data as possible because they were leading in AI and I want AI to have access to as much data on me as possible to make life easier when it gets smart enough. Hasn't panned out yet but I don't really regret it.
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#17The ads are irrelevant. A distraction. The problem is the collected data is sold on and correlated and becomes a interface+sensors to "hack" people, simulate and manage political measures and stabilize for the individual bad situations. As long as there are two people left on the planet with phones, social engineering can get them to fight and distrust one another. And you can see the effects. In the approaches to you with emotional content instead of information. They got us good..
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#18> So what if Google sends me targetted ads?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. What you don't see is what is going to get ya. It's not about nefarious actors lurking in the shadows, it's someone like you and me that is incentivized to make more money by taking the advantage of the data they have on you.
What if you have nothing to hide? Then you should read this [0] paper that has a more rigorous treatment of privacy:
> privacy is not reducible to a singular essence; it is a plurality of different things that do not share one element in common but that nevertheless bear a resemblance to each other
> The taxonomy has four general categories of privacy problems with sixteen different subcategories. The first general category is information collection, which involves the ways that data is gathered about people. The subcategories, surveillance and interrogation, represent the two primary problematic ways of gathering information. A privacy problem occurs when an activity by a person, business, or government entity creates harm by disrupting valuable activities of others. These harms need not be physical or emotional; they can occur by chilling socially beneficial behavior (for example, free speech and association) or by leading to power imbalances that adversely affect social structure (for example, excessive executive power).
Solove primary focuses on US gov't privacy invasion but this applies just as well to Google et al.
[0]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3976770
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#19I think a great example of why data privacy matters was the recent concern many American women had about whether data collected by their period tracking app could be used to persecute them for abortions. While you might believe that the data being collected about you is harmless, a government hostile to you could use that data against you with great effect.
An even more worrying account of data hoarding was when homosexuals were registered and later sent to concentration camps... (Yes, I've just invoked Godwin's law)
In my opinion data should be regarded as a liability by default.
We can't rely on a given corporation being benign, or not cooperating with a given regime forever.
Re: So what if Google sends me targeted ads?
#20Something the article doesn't mention is that your data is not only used to target you with ads. It's also used to target you with propaganda or any political or social agenda a person, organization or state is willing to pay for. Adtech is the perfect weapon of information warfare, and it's been successfuly used to influence public opinion, and corrupt democratic processes (e.g. Cambridge Analytica). Both ads and pr…
The main problem, imho, is that if one can describe the situation and make someone care even a _little_, it’s not enough. There are so many more important things to be worried about throughout one’s lifetime that data privacy doesn’t even register.
Being concerned about how one’s data is being sold is a very “first world problem”, and even in “first worlds” it’s not a very big one for the great majority of the population.