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Why we should end the data economy

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Re: Why we should end the data economy

#251

Post by jdgoesmarching »

tootie wrote: post #170
infogulch wrote: post #65

Somehow organizations get an immense amount of value out of tracking everything you do, say, think, and buy; everywhere you go; and everyone you meet. Two questions: 1. Why should they profit off of my data without my consent? (Hint: they shouldn't.) 2. Why is it so hard for me to get value out of it? Shit, if it's gonna be collected, aggregated, and analyzed anyway, I should just do it my damn self and actually get…

Google search being free is an absolute enormous amount of value. How much would you pay for a subscription to Google if it weren't free?

Maybe a decade ago. Now using Google is an exercise of filtering out Amazon affiliate blogspam clogging the first several pages of results.

“Advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers” -Larry and Sergey in 1998

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#252

Post by reaperducer »

amelius wrote: post #125
SavantIdiot wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great list. SO many times people have said to me, "Let them track me, I've got nothing to hide." And you hit them with a few things off this list and they immediately change their mind. There should be a tinurl for website I can send people to that shows a simple list of all the ways personal information can be used.

Yes, great list. But salary and bank balance should probably be added.

But salary and bank balance should probably be added.

ADP is one of the largest paycheck processors in the United States. But almost no one realizes that if their paycheck comes through ADP, their salary information is being sold. Remember, this is also a company that knows when you've been hired, fired, has your Social Security Number, and a lot of other very personal financial information. According to a New York Times article from a few years ago, ADP is selling you out worse than even the cell phone companies. Yet, there was zero uproar about it that I noticed.

As for bank balances, I was very surprised to learn recently that bank balances are not part of credit scoring. I have a substantial amount of emergency savings. The last time I pulled my credit reports, it wasn't on any of them.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#253

Post by prestigious »

cs702 wrote: post #54

No one sane would ever want their relatives, friends, work colleagues, and neighbors to be able to know (quoting from the OP): > who you sleep with because both you and the person you share your bed with keep your phones nearby > whether you sleep soundly at night or whether your troubles are keeping you up > whether you pick up your phone in the middle of the night and search for things like "loan repayment" > your…

I would be curious to know my inferred IQ.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#255

Post by reaperducer »

choeger wrote: post #145
mancerayder wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add to this... everything you said is a forever kept thing. So over decades this stuff can be mined and a tiny needle can be found if it's meaningful to the searcher. It's terrifying.

Add to this that no one cares about whether the data is even correct. A glitch in the location tracking and, bam, you have an affair. Some wrongly assigned search queries or speech requests and suddenly you are a pedophile. A terrorist selecting you as a cover identity and you wake up in Guantanamo.

Add to this that no one cares about whether the data is even correct.

It's interesting how our culture has adopted the mantra that "computers are never wrong." Yet, every day in the media there are dozens or hundreds of articles about computers and systems making mistakes. I wish we could break that cycle of believing anything that comes off a screen.

I fight my own minor battles against this weekly. As part of my job, I maintain an online directory of about 70,000 businesses related to the one I work for. I regularly get e-mails from people saying things like, "The phone number for X is wrong. Google says it's this...!"

Then when I look into it, Google is wrong. But because it's Google, people assume it's right, and my web sites are wrong. We need to teach people that not only do computers make mistakes, but Google is the king of all mistake-generating engines.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#256

Post by erikerikson »

cs702 wrote: post #54

No one sane would ever want their relatives, friends, work colleagues, and neighbors to be able to know (quoting from the OP): > who you sleep with because both you and the person you share your bed with keep your phones nearby > whether you sleep soundly at night or whether your troubles are keeping you up > whether you pick up your phone in the middle of the night and search for things like "loan repayment" > your…

I had a wedding to make sure everyone closest to me knew who I was sleeping with (Emily as is already public record). It took a fair bit of time and money to coordinate and hold that event.

When people ask how I'm doing, I tell them and that includes whether my problems are impacting my daily routines and needs. (Not lately)

I've shared the results of my IQ tests and had plenty of discussions about the validity and lack thereof of those results (145-160+ depending on test). Facebook likes are the least good mechanism to work that out by.

I think one of the helpful things I do is share really good places to eat and find things I want. (Nirmal's is my favorite in Seattle)

I hope driving monitoring helps us shift from a penalize infrequent rule breaking instances to helping manage attention and grow skill. I speed when conditions let that be safe.

I suffer depression and have my whole life as everyone I know is aware and now is more public on the internet.

You'll have to ask her but I'm not looking to leave. I'm very honest and want that in my closest relationships so if we were going that direction she'd be among the first people I spoke with. If she feels she needs to leave I'll try and help us both find happier lives but I hope it never comes to that.

I respect that you have a different level of openness. I think a good criticism of my post is that I have a ton of privilege to feel safe sharing these things. I've chosen to live a life I feel entirely comfortable sharing. Clearly I'm not handing out credentials but... I prefer a world that is more honest and intimate and that simply requires I be open, honest, and self-reflective.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#257

Post by emodendroket »

infogulch wrote: post #65

Somehow organizations get an immense amount of value out of tracking everything you do, say, think, and buy; everywhere you go; and everyone you meet. Two questions: 1. Why should they profit off of my data without my consent? (Hint: they shouldn't.) 2. Why is it so hard for me to get value out of it? Shit, if it's gonna be collected, aggregated, and analyzed anyway, I should just do it my damn self and actually get…

I think many people find lots of value in search, free email, Android, and other services dependent on this model. The argument that you're not getting anything out of it rings false.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#258

Post by emodendroket »

teucris wrote: post #103
infogulch wrote: post #65

Somehow organizations get an immense amount of value out of tracking everything you do, say, think, and buy; everywhere you go; and everyone you meet. Two questions: 1. Why should they profit off of my data without my consent? (Hint: they shouldn't.) 2. Why is it so hard for me to get value out of it? Shit, if it's gonna be collected, aggregated, and analyzed anyway, I should just do it my damn self and actually get…

The response to expect with #2 is that you get paid back in the form of fast search results, map directions, live communications, personalized news feeds, targeted advertisements, etc. Pay no attention to the fact that you’re not getting versions of these things that maximize your benefit either...

It wasn't that long ago that you'd buy a GPS unit for a few hundred dollars and updating the maps would be another $100+.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#259

Post by kazinator »

Part of the data economy is this curious phenomenon: nicely styled web articles, where 99.9999% of the effort goes into producing the graphical artwork (often just for that article, not from a stock library!), and the text is just someone banging out some Reddit-comment-level crap for 5-10 minutes.

Imagine this in a plain document with no CSS:

  
    Why We Should End the Data Economy
    
The data economy depends on violating our
       right to privacy on a massive scale,
       collecting as much personal data as possible
       for profit.

    
...

    ...
Now it's just the rant of some loser who doesn't even know the first thing about making an attractive web page, and doesn't have any friends who are graphical designers or artists to help him or her sell the idea to the masses.

Re: Why we should end the data economy

#260

Post by janto »

matz1 wrote: post #175
slver wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From reading this list, I can deduce OP just made up most of them, because over half of them contains details that are total BS. Also I happen to think we'd be a better society if we all knew everything about each other. Instead of discouraging companies from analyzing us, encourage them to publish everything all the time. Let governments join in on the fun. Everyone should be tracking an analyzing everyone else. Sol…

This is the way to go in the future. It will be more and more impractical, very costly, and inconvenient to hide information as technology get better. The problem that need to be solves is not how to hide information but how to fix the issue that arise when the information are public. Lets talk about one example : Right now it is a problem if my credit card number become public because it can be used for unauthorized…

You'd still need to keep something private like a PIN or private key.
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