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EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

reuters.com

271–280 of 765 posts

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as can Apple, Google, every cable company, every telecom, the credit card companies, Grindr, health clinics

Your point being?

Just whataboutism, it seems.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#272
I would love to see a regulation put in place requiring companies to notify their users every time they transfer data about their users to another organization. If the data is "anonymized", the company should have to notify all their users.

If the company has contact info for the user, it should send the user a notification via that contact info. Even if that means having to send a physical letter.

The company should also keep a public record of transfers, something like a page on their website listing when they've transferred data, why it was transferred, and what kind of data was transferred. That would cover anonymous users.

There would need to be something in there covering data transfer as part of what the company's business is. Maybe a list of businesses that access your data as part of the provided services and are covered by the company's terms?

Even better would be to force companies that make money selling your data to share the profits with every person they just sold data on.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#273
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upon logging into okcupid today I received a pop up inviting me to join The League (another dating app), with my phone number already pre-propagated. After accepting, they sent me this email. > We use the combination of your Facebook and LinkedIn data plus your About Me and Photos to ensure we are building a balanced, high-achieving and diverse community. Our screening algorithm looks at indicators like social influe…

Reminds of the days when your name, address, and phone number were automatically listed in the phone book. You had to pay the phone company to not list your information. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_directory

Being ex-directory was a status symbol in the UK!

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#274

Comments here so far focus on personalised ads as the issue -- but that's a symptom of what's being banned, which is the mass collection of personal data. Personalised ads are beside the point. The issue is how they are personalised, namely by building a rich profile of user behaviour based on non-consensual tracking. It isnt even clear that there's a meaningful sense of 'consent' to what modern ad companies (ie., go…

I think in the context of privacy "personalised" always means "personalised by using information the publisher shouldn't have". Facebook has my age and home town, knows what many of my interests are via groups I'm in. I don't think it's wrong to say I have given them that information voluntarily and so long as they keep it on their servers only, I'm ok with them showing me a mountainbike ad because I'm a 40yo male wh…

I totally get where you're coming from. Isn't that the approach Apple took with their (small) business running app store and news ads? they only allow generalized location and user info, and in app store context its almost entirely query based. but there's no identifying info. FWIW I absolutely hate the ads I see in apple news and they seem to be AI generated images with shitty headlines such as "New government program can wipe out debt. see how much you could save".

Instagram in comparison sends me a ton of personalized ads and I actually really like them. I have a modified .ipa of instagram (Rocket for iOS) and while it turns ads off I actually have that setting changed so I still see ads. Sometimes I find things I really like.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#275
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as can Apple, Google, every cable company, every telecom, the credit card companies, Grindr, health clinics

Apple Google and Grindr aside, those industries are heavily regulated to prevent exactly this

They are heavily regulated, but it's hard to audit or prove in court

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#276
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. And when I’m unhappy with my government, I can vote them out or, if I want to, get politically active. I can’t vote out Google. Their customers are advertisers, not me. And I don’t know which apps on my phone send my information to Facebook or what they do with it.

It’s infinitely easier to avoid the companies you don’t like than it is to vote out any part of government. You have near zero power to remove someone you don’t like because your vote is worth next to nothing. However, you have full power to avoid the products and services of a company.

I mean, if you know how. I once ran across a data product which was Bluetooth mac addresses as they moved through bust streets. Sure it's easy to turn off Bluetooth so that you don't show up in the data, but most people had no idea the collection was happening.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to aggregate personal information of large numbers of people is a form of political power. Facebook can, if it so wishes, provide a list of all gay people in an area; all supporters of gaza or of israel; all people who have recently commented on an article about drugs. The very ability to provide that list previously required an expensive secret police; today it does not. This is an extremely dangerous ab…

Yes, as can Apple, Google, every cable company, every telecom, the credit card companies, Grindr, health clinics

Right, which is why many of those companies are also commonly criticised on privacy grounds.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit company does not have microphone near your bed, they do not know which posts you like, or not, they do not have all your mails, and not necessarily know where you drive and how often. Keeping all of the data under one company umbrella is vulnerable, target for hackers, and easy target for governments. Your post is not correct.

> and not necessarily know where you drive and how often. They do tough. They know where you refueled/charged your car, hotels you've booked. Not only that, but they also know if you donate money to your local mosque/synagogue, spend just a bit too much at a liquor store, etc.

Well, then we should re-engineer things so that they don't, or regulate them heavily.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#279

Comments here so far focus on personalised ads as the issue -- but that's a symptom of what's being banned, which is the mass collection of personal data. Personalised ads are beside the point. The issue is how they are personalised, namely by building a rich profile of user behaviour based on non-consensual tracking. It isnt even clear that there's a meaningful sense of 'consent' to what modern ad companies (ie., go…

I think in the context of privacy "personalised" always means "personalised by using information the publisher shouldn't have". Facebook has my age and home town, knows what many of my interests are via groups I'm in. I don't think it's wrong to say I have given them that information voluntarily and so long as they keep it on their servers only, I'm ok with them showing me a mountainbike ad because I'm a 40yo male wh…

>That's the kind of thing I don't think I should even be allowed to consent to

Why not?

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as can Apple, Google, every cable company, every telecom, the credit card companies, Grindr, health clinics

Credit company does not have microphone near your bed, they do not know which posts you like, or not, they do not have all your mails, and not necessarily know where you drive and how often. Keeping all of the data under one company umbrella is vulnerable, target for hackers, and easy target for governments. Your post is not correct.

>Keeping all of the data under one company umbrella

This part of your post is also not correct. What company knows everything about you? There's insurance companies, credit card companies, social media companies... they all have a substantial amount of info about you but they don't all collude to aggregate it.

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