Hmm I was wondering how some stores show up on Google maps even though I did not use Google maps to get to those places. God damm Google.
Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
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Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#12Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#13FTA: "Google says it has access to roughly 70% of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with companies that track that data." Wow.
MasterCard and Visa not only make money from each credit card transaction but to add insult to injury, they make money selling that transaction data as well! That's what I call a ludicrous business.
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#14Not Google specific, but some good reading on this topic came out in January - The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power [0]
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Aisles-Have-Eyes-Retailers-Shopping/d...
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#15A Googler gave a talk at Real World Crypto in January describing a system that might back this. The relevant part of the talk starts around the 10 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee7oRsDnNNc&t=10m1s
In short, they're able to compute the intersection of the set of users who have viewed an ad with the set of people who purchased a product in a store, without either party disclosing their side of the set.
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#16FTA: "Google says it has access to roughly 70% of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with companies that track that data." Wow.
This is the point that really shocked me! I'd love to read more on this.
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#17There are anonymized credit card services, including pre-paid and other solutions. The following is based on notes at least a year old, and I haven't tried them:
* Abine
* Final https://getfinal.com/
* Privacy Inc. https://privacy.com/
Also, many pre-paid cards require the user to identify themselves before the card is activated
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#18FTA: "Google says it has access to roughly 70% of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with companies that track that data." Wow.
This is the point that really shocked me! I'd love to read more on this.
The book "Chaos Monkeys"[1], while irritating in many ways, has a detailed description of how Facebook correlates its own advertising data with information from data brokers (such as credit card transaction aggregators). This kind of stuff has been happening for quite some time. (As an extra bonus, the book describes how the author's ad-tech startup got into YC and was bought by Twitter.)
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#19I think everyone remembers the first ad to follow them around multiple websites. For me it was an ASPCA campaign.
The next version of that experience will be researching a purchase and where to get it, then seeing ads on the way that are customized to (a) the product you're buying and (b) your preferences.
If you're 55 you'll get michael jordan advising you to buy nikes. If you're 35 it will be Noel Gallagher (air noels?), and if you're 10 it will be the ninja turtles.
The good news is at a certain point the competition for eyeballs will become so fierce that the ads become honest & informative.
Re: Google starts tracking what people buy in physical stores
#20Now I will have to seriously consider getting off the Google ecosystem now. Deactivating facebook was okay, but Google might be tricky considering many of website accounts use Google authentication.
Okay, this is a small rant that is not directly aimed at you, so nothing personal. This is aimed generally more at people in the privacy at all costs camp and the like. If there's some viewpoint I'm missing here I'd also love to hear it, so it's not really a mean-spirited rant either.
Google owns the internet at this point. For general use purposes, they ARE the internet. So avoiding them should really have at least SOME effect before it's even seriously considered.
What does getting off Google do?
It doesn't hurt them, as there's no way a significant number of people will take action, at least in the near future.
So, then it must be done for you. By not being in these services and having all this data collected on you, what do you actually gain? Likely, nothing at all. You won't be able to be tracked down as easily if Google turns evil, sure. If their data is breached in a meaningful way, sure again. But, for both of these, emphasis on "as easily". At this point, if you're looking to maliciously track down just about anyone, it's not hard at all. You'd have to go fully off the grid to get this. And in that scenario, what do you gain again? We follow down the same road of "I only gain something in very unlikely scenarios" again.
So to me, the only way this type of perspective makes sense is if you believe those very unlikely scenarios (from my view) are much more likely. And if they are, we're all fucked already, and being one of the few to be off the grid probably won't matter in the end.
Basically, at this point, you've already given yourself to Google. Rather than decide whether or not to trust them, I think putting more effort into trying to influence them towards "not being evil", as they say, is much more of a realistic move for someone with concerns over data, privacy, power/security of all this, etc.
Am I missing something?
PS: I understand Facebook - for some, there are no significant benefits you give up. For most, you're going to give up a lot more with Google.