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Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

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Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#111

Post by nikcub »

graue wrote: post #101
JeremyBanks wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comprehending why the Twitter limit exists should let you comprehend why there's no point for App.net to follow it. The service won't actually be used for "micro-blogging" unless users are constrained by some limit, but 144 is too damn small. Nobody would ever have picked it if they weren't forced to, and these days they aren't. What infinitesimal fraction of modern Twitter users in App.net's target market do you ima…

I've been using Tent ( https://tent.io ) which also adopted 256 characters, and I think it's actually quite generous for statuses. Maybe too much; the nature of microblogging changes when you don't have to be concise. I bet the sweet spot is probably somewhere in 160-200.

Sticking to 140 would be a good standard for a microblogging standard since it would allow you to syndicate out to Twitter and you could emulate the API and automatically have other apps support that character limit.

If you go beyond 140 it is then no longer a microblog post, but rather just an ordinary blog post.

Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#113

Post by gabemart »

rkudeshi wrote: post #22

A related story: I was recently shopping around for a new ISP. One I considered was Verizon FiOS. In order to see the prices in my area, I had to enter my address. Two weeks later, I got a letter in the mail. Written outside on the envelope was something like: "We noticed you were checking out our website! Here's a special offer just for you..." It's not the same as what OP posted, but it certainly left me creeped ou…

When I was last shopping for DSL internet service in the UK, every provider would require you to enter your phone number to see what speeds they could provision you with.

Most had a small box to uncheck to avoid a marketing follow up phone call.

But at least one company didn't have a box--they just had a message saying that if you entered your phone number to check for service, they would call you at some unspecified later date. There was no way to opt out.

Needless to say, I didn't buy their DSL.

Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#116

Post by pc86 »

dude_abides wrote: post #3

Thanks for the PSA. While I understand why these things tend to be opt-out by default, I'm surprised there was no email from Verizon updating users about these new settings with a link to opt-out if they wanted to. I used to think that the telecom industry is a lot more regulated than social network companies like Facebook, but I guess that's not really true!

I specifically remember getting a letter in the mail a few weeks ago alerting me to this.

Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#118

Post by trotsky »

given the increasing ubiquity of these kinds of deals and the quixotic whack-a-mole game they call opt outs, how dumb would it be to cut out the middle men and just say "hey, for the low price of whatever you're paying now we'll all just sell you our habits, cookies, weblogs, location data, brand preferences and shopping habits (via some up front mobile aggregator of said data). It seems likely that people spend enough collectively tracking and profiling me that it might pay for a night out a month if we cut out the middle men. And hell, it might even have an unexpected bonus - the law of the jungle say if it runs chase it and if it chases you, run. Maybe you'd stop being desired tracking target in the end :)

Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#119

Post by stephengillie »

trotsky wrote: post #118

given the increasing ubiquity of these kinds of deals and the quixotic whack-a-mole game they call opt outs, how dumb would it be to cut out the middle men and just say "hey, for the low price of whatever you're paying now we'll all just sell you our habits, cookies, weblogs, location data, brand preferences and shopping habits (via some up front mobile aggregator of said data). It seems likely that people spend enou…

You're expecting the NSA-hats will get bored watching us check into the same restaurants and movie theaters after months and years? You're more optimistic than me.

Re: Verizon is Selling Your Personal Data

#120

Post by paulsilver »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #96
Evbn wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Just to be like twitter, but different, with no comprehension of why the Twitter limit exists?

Comprehending why the Twitter limit exists should let you comprehend why there's no point for App.net to follow it. The service won't actually be used for "micro-blogging" unless users are constrained by some limit, but 144 is too damn small. Nobody would ever have picked it if they weren't forced to, and these days they aren't. What infinitesimal fraction of modern Twitter users in App.net's target market do you ima…

I'm not sure how many Twitter users actually use SMS any more. I tried to use it to send in an update a few weeks ago and it took ~4 hours for the tweet to appear in my timeline. I'm in the UK so maybe they have better response times in other countries.
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