Big Brother Really Is Watching You

[vintagesnaps]

Gmail tracks what you're typing before you even send the email. Too creepy, I quit using both. How the 'mighty' are falling.

 

[smoke665]

The creepy thing is how using multiple data sources and sophisticated AI software they are able to build a detailed profile, filling in the blanks by comparing different different data they do have.

In their world data is money, the more data they have the more money they make. Showing me ads for clothing because I looked at something in a store is one thing, but who's limiting what they do Or how far they go with a digital footprint. If I buy a 6 pack of beer to drink while watching the football game, in the privacy of my home, do I want my car insurance company to be notified?

 

[Grandpa Ron]

As I mentioned before unless you are off the grid, live like the Amish or are a rich recluse like Howard Hughes was, everyone that wants information about you can get it.

Even without specific details we all leave an information trail. I have a drivers license so I probably own a car. My electric bill jumps in the summer time so I probably have air conditioning, I charge gas on a regular basis so an estimate of how many miles I drive can be made, etc.

This info is not being studies by humans it is being analyses by computers with programs dedicate to filter out a particular sale demographic.

Hence I order something from Amazon, I am deluged by adds for similar products. Like it or not it works or businesses would not spend time and money to do it.

I learned a long time ago, you digitize anything, it will be available to it world, eventually. It is the price we pay for the conveniences we like.

 

[smoke665]

@Grandpa Ron I'm waiting for the ability to clone myself as a digital being, thereby screwing up their whole tracking.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Cloning might help or it might just get you twice the junk mail.

The point is, if you are going to live a contemporary life style this stuff is unavoidable. With rare exception, we all drive, use electricity, have phones, and pay taxes etc. We need to, to pursue our photographic hobby

The computers tracking these details do not belong to some secret agency that is tracking each person, they belong to a multitude of organization that are looking for specific areas of product sales.

If you want to feed your paranoia, It is also reasonable to believe that given enough motivation, this information could be accessed by law enforcement or even some clandestine organization.

You too can join this group, lets say you specialize in a unique type of photography; there are research firms, that for a price, will tell you more than you care to know about your field of interest.

Welcome to the 21st century.

 

[smoke665]

The point is, if you are going to live a contemporary life style this stuff is unavoidable

To a point, but the question is - who sets the limits? An interesting read Is privacy possible in the digital age? which leads to the assumption that privacy concerns in the digital world would not be necessary if everyone were accountable to the same transparency - individual, corporate, government, etc. The problem is that, transparency is far from equal. The article reminded me of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” In the current Topsy Turvy world of data mining, there's a few "haves" and a lot of "havenots".

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Smoke,

You have summed it up very nicely. The limits are set by the the services you use and your decision to use it. Most of these companies are perfectly willing to tell you what they use this information for.

Typically it is to inform you of potential saving that are available from them and from related business "that might be of interest to you". It is a nice way of saying they are selling their address list.

A few businesses will allow you to opt out or tell you they will not pass on your information. Many do not. It is up to the individual to determine what they want.

However the truth of the matter is most folk do not care. They find the coupons and sales notices handy and the associated junk mail gets pitched. The "haves" in this case are the folks paying good money to send this junk and the "havenots" are the folk pitching it into the recycle bins.

The two areas where this get a bit dicey are public records and scam artists.

 

[BananaRepublic]

This has been known for awhile now, but the breadth and depth of it was really unknown until this week. Yahoo Mail is still scanning your emails for data to sell to advertisers My son is the IT Mgr of a large Federal Court. Most of the transactions and communications with the court from attorney is supposed to be via secure email. It was only discovered this week that not only the email sent by attorneys via their Yahoo accounts was being scanned but that from the court back to that Yahoo account was being scanned as well. Even worse any links to court cases within the emails were being compromised and scanned as well. Yahoo didn't have any answers to why they were scanning privileged information other then they shouldn't be doing that. For the time being the courts are blocking any emails from or to Yahoo accounts.

Its pretty well known that all the big techs scan your stuff, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, NSA, M15, M16, Facebook.
Google owns Ancestry.com nothing suspect about that or the huge whistle blower problems there facing. 23andme sold out to glaxo smith kleine, Their not out to get us individually but collectively, The spy agencies are to be fare.

 

[smoke665]

The two areas where this get a bit dicey are public records and scam artists.

The area where I see this getting dicey is the protection against illegal searches. Let's say XYZ data, mines all the data on liquor sales at local restaurants, from that and other sources their AI can pull a profile that links you specifically that says on a certain night of any given week at a certain hour there is a likelihood that you might test over the legal limit behind the wheel of your car. Law enforcement subscribers would know the exact place and time to check you, and you would have no protection from unreasonable searches because all the data was public. Law enforcement on the other hand is under no obligation to share the data they collect on you. A simplified example but feasible given today's technology.

I haven't started wearing a tin foil hat yet, but I see some real threats with data companies self monitoring themselves. As to the decision to "opt out" you aren't given that option when a profile is "built" from multiple sources with AI assumptions filling in the blanks.

 

[BananaRepublic]

The two areas where this get a bit dicey are public records and scam artists.

The area where I see this getting dicey is the protection against illegal searches. Let's say XYZ data, mines all the data on liquor sales at local restaurants, from that and other sources their AI can pull a profile that links you specifically that says on a certain night of any given week at a certain hour there is a likelihood that you might test over the legal limit behind the wheel of your car. Law enforcement subscribers would know the exact place and time to check you, and you would have no protection from unreasonable searches because all the data was public. Law enforcement on the other hand is under no obligation to share the data they collect on you. A simplified example but feasible given today's technology.

I haven't started wearing a tin foil hat yet, but I see some real threats with data companies self monitoring themselves. As to the decision to "opt out" you aren't given that option when a profile is "built" from multiple sources with AI assumptions filling in the blanks.

Walmart knows when people are pregnant based on their purchase history and that is well proven by their own marketing strategies.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

In the end Technology marches on. But Technology makes no moral decisions.

The same technology that brings us Photoshop, smart phones and delivers fundamental education to remote corners of the world, also helps delivers child porn and illicit drugs.

It is how you use technology that matters and society has been struggling with that since the dawn of time.

 

[smoke665]

In the end Technology marches on. But Technology makes no moral decisions.

True that. As in the OP, Yahoo's bot didn't know private from non private. Humans programmed it to click on links, scan data and keep clicking till it can't go any further. Humans can make moral decisions, but unfortunately their acceptable level can be tainted by money.

 

[SquarePeg]

I’m interested in doing one of those ancestry analyses but have held off as I don’t think their privacy policies are sufficient. And once your DNA is out there, who’s to say it won’t end up on some list with the health insurance companies as uninsurable because you are predisposed to something or other.

Also, seems like a lot of family dirt is being aired out because of these tests. Not sure I really want to know!

 

[smoke665]

Also, seems like a lot of family dirt is being aired out because of these tests. Not sure I really want to know!

Sometimes that dirt is best left covered. Before she passed my Great Aunt asked me to visit so she could enlighten me on the family history that was "not for general public knowledge". She talked non-stop for 3 hours, after which it took another 2 hours to get my chin off the floor, she told all. Politics, moonshine, sex, gambling, there was enough there to make E.L. James blush. Caused some hard feelings with my only remaining Aunt (the family matriarch at the time), because there were things she would have preferred stayed buried, and a few things even she didn't know. Now I'm the oldest of the family, and frankly like my Aunt I'm not sure if it needs to be passed on. Then again, I may just write bestseller and go out with a bang. LOL