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Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

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Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#11

Post by reactordev »

wkat4242 wrote: post #5

We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?

You start an EU competing service with the top EU banks and money lenders. You build a bunch of credit card infrastructure. You tie your infrastructure to the merchant systems and get gateways to implement your protocol.

Not exactly easy but it’s not impossible. An app based system could probably do it and force ApplePay and GooglePay to use it in those areas. They will if it’s in place.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#12

Post by wkat4242 »

reactordev wrote: post #11
wkat4242 wrote: post #5

We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?

You start an EU competing service with the top EU banks and money lenders. You build a bunch of credit card infrastructure. You tie your infrastructure to the merchant systems and get gateways to implement your protocol. Not exactly easy but it’s not impossible. An app based system could probably do it and force ApplePay and GooglePay to use it in those areas. They will if it’s in place.

Well the whole credit/lending part isn't even needed. In Europe this is only a marginal thing and most people just have debit cards.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#13

Post by reactordev »

wkat4242 wrote: post #7
doctorpangloss wrote: post #4

This comment is meant to get an interesting conversation instead of "mastercard bad" or whatever. Would the EFF feel any differently if the data were pseudo-anonymous and open to everyone? You can go to SteamDB.info and learn a lot about millions of people based on what games they buy. It's a psuedo-anonymous per-user purchase history. Here's mine: https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197975362423/?cc=us . You can lo…

Absolutely not. Pseudo-anoymous can still be traced back with the right correlations. It should just be illegal to use customer data unless they explicitly agree. It's not even about harm. It's about having a right to privacy. And this is not some computer games we're talking about. It's our whole lives.

Then we all should vote for a new net neutrality because until internet is a utility, you agree to a terms of service that is hostile towards privacy.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#14

Post by ssl232 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #5

We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?

> But how do you break up such a duopoly?

Start buying things with cash again.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#15

Post by reactordev »

wkat4242 wrote: post #12
reactordev wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You start an EU competing service with the top EU banks and money lenders. You build a bunch of credit card infrastructure. You tie your infrastructure to the merchant systems and get gateways to implement your protocol. Not exactly easy but it’s not impossible. An app based system could probably do it and force ApplePay and GooglePay to use it in those areas. They will if it’s in place.

Well the whole credit/lending part isn't even needed. In Europe this is only a marginal thing and most people just have debit cards.

You need capital to lend though or you need lender groups you can securitize. That’s the “credit” part of Visa/Mastercard. The concept can easily be done all digital. IANAE on payments but pretty sure if you build it (and connect it), it would work.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#17

Post by 13of40 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #5

We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?

> American morals...they won't provide payments for some websites...

Never heard of that. What are some examples?

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#19

Post by mandmandam »

13of40 wrote: post #17
wkat4242 wrote: post #5

We should have a payment system that isn't held hostage by two providers anyway. At least here in Europe MasterCard and visa are the only options. Amex and Discovery are really unusable here. Besides selling our data this also means we get American morals pushed on us, eg they won't provide payments for some websites they don't like. But how do you break up such a duopoly?

> American morals...they won't provide payments for some websites... Never heard of that. What are some examples?

Major recent examples that spring to mind are the Wikileaks and OnlyFans bans.

Re: Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

#20

Post by gruez »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #4

This comment is meant to get an interesting conversation instead of "mastercard bad" or whatever. Would the EFF feel any differently if the data were pseudo-anonymous and open to everyone? You can go to SteamDB.info and learn a lot about millions of people based on what games they buy. It's a psuedo-anonymous per-user purchase history. Here's mine: https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197975362423/?cc=us . You can lo…

>You can go to SteamDB.info and learn a lot about millions of people based on what games they buy. It's a psuedo-anonymous per-user purchase history. Here's mine: https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197975362423/?cc=us . You can look up basically anyone on Steam, and even do advanced math on all of it. It's been going on for at least a decade.

can't you opt out by making your profile private?

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