The Multi-Billion Dollar Industry That Makes Its Living From Your Data

 

But I'm not doing anything wrong so what do I care???

For your amusement and entertainment... read on.. if you dare...

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The Multi-Billion Dollar Industry That Makes Its Living From Your Data

Nick Routley on April 14, 2018 at 3:58 pm

In the ocean ecosystem, plankton is the raw material that fuels an entire food chain. These tiny organisms on their own aren’t that remarkable, but en masse, they have a huge impact on the world.

Here on dry land, the massive volume of content and meta data we produce fuels a marketing research industry that is worth nearly $50 billion. Every instant message, page click, and step you take now produces a data point that can be used to build a detailed profile of who you are.

Every breath you take, Every move you make

The coarse-grained demographics and contact information of yesteryear seems quaint compared to today’s sophisticated data collection battleground. In the past, marketers would make judgement calls on your likely income and family structure based on where you lived, and you’d receive “targeted” mail and calls from telemarketers. Loyalty programs and the emergence of web analytics pushed things a little further.

Today, the steady march of technological advancement has created a vast data collection empire that measures every aspect of your digital life and, increasingly, your offline life as well. Facebook alone uses nearly one hundred data points to target ads to you – everything from your marital status to whether you’ve been on vacation lately or not. Telecoms have access to extremely detailed information on your location. Apple has biometric data.

Also watching your every move are web trackers. “Cookie-syncing” is one of the sneaky ways advertisers can follow you around the internet. Basically, cookie-syncing allows third parties to share browsing information at such a large scale that even the NSA “piggybacks” off them for surveillance purposes.

The recent sales growth of smart speakers will only increase the breadth of data companies collect and analyze. Amazon and Google have both filed patents for technology that would essentially allow them to mine audio recordings for keywords. Advertisers could potentially target you with diapers before your family and friends even know you’re expecting a baby.

Following the ones and zeros

While web trackers and companies like Apple and Google are collecting a lot of personal and behavioral data, it’s the whales of the data ecosystem – data brokers – who are creating increasingly detailed profiles on almost everyone.

Prease to read more here:

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/personal-data-ecosystem

Be sure to click on the tabs at the top of the article and there may be surprises in there too!!

Ain't it grand????

Oh and don't forget about the stuff from credit cards that's been going on and on and on for decades too... it's in the mix as well...

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Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!

In between street address and Loyalty programs was ..

BarneyBadass wrote:

But I'm not doing anything wrong so what do I care???

...

Oh and don't forget about the stuff from credit cards that's been going on and on and on for decades too... it's in the mix as well...

If you're old enough to remember S&H Green Stamps and Top Value stamps .. what do you think they did with your name and address in the books you turned in when you redeemed them for your "free" toaster? Or did you redeem them for something else?

That was before credit cards even existed. Yup, Marketing rules the world. Without it no $$ would flow.

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It's about the Line- If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended.

Oh Yeah I remember

JD4x4 wrote:
BarneyBadass wrote:

But I'm not doing anything wrong so what do I care???

...

Oh and don't forget about the stuff from credit cards that's been going on and on and on for decades too... it's in the mix as well...

If you're old enough to remember S&H Green Stamps and Top Value stamps .. what do you think they did with your name and address in the books you turned in when you redeemed them for your "free" toaster? Or did you redeem them for something else?

That was before credit cards even existed. Yup, Marketing rules the world. Without it no $$ would flow.

And warranty cards as well...

--
Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!

old school

do you remember the old war dialers , they would dial numbers in numerical order and keep track of fax numbers and humans that answered the phone ! well they have made them a little better now ! how many phone calls do you get that only ring once and don't give you time to answer, oh that's right you have caller ID so you can call them back and see what they wanted and there using your cell phone minutes that you pay for and that was supposed to be illegal, all communication is tracked any more .

yup... and then there's this

--
Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!

Can I opt out of Equifax?

Last year Equifax exposed all my financial and credit history to outside hackers. https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com

For that irresponsibility can I tell them to erase all my data from their databank? They don't have the right to be so careless with my information. Maybe they need to post all the financial data from all their executives online so we can read about them. I'll bet they are much more careful with their information!

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Zumo 550 & Zumo 665 My alarm clock is sunshine on chrome.

Hacks

dave817 wrote:

Last year Equifax exposed all my financial and credit history to outside hackers.

Yep, me as well. I was wondering why I got my new credit card 3 1/2 months early... Then, I read the news a few weeks later.

Bastages.

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nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

Ditto on Equif*x

Yeah, Equifax gave mine away too. That affected way more people than they first reported. At least we got free credit monitoring and credit lock.

--
It's about the Line- If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former shall not be extended.

Oh well...

and what did it cost them ???

--
Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!