Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Privacy Incursions to Support Price Discrimination

Posted by michael on from the know-your-customer dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek has an interesting interview with academic Andrew Odlyzko about how increased corporate spying will inevitably lead to targeted pricing and how this system can be abused." The paper (pdf) makes interesting reading. Very good insights into the reasons why businesses want to get to know you.

5 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ad fun by Cackmobile · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Good call if I could mod I'd score this funny. Nice work.

    --
    -- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
  2. Wait a minute.... by Quebec · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You said they are "obviously" modified.

    Wouldn't be possible to make a proprietary code which use a selective set of files from a GPL package without modifying it? resulting in a binary which isn't recognized as the original.

    It's actually possible and I don't see how this could be a violation of the GPL and I wouldn't see how an outsider can tell right from wrong, I would find it quite arrogant from his part.

    It even sounds a bit diffamatory.

  3. Andrew Odlyzko by Ann+Coulter · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Odlyzko is a premere researcher in compution the zeros of the Zeta function. Here is his site.

  4. Re:It can easily be abused by unscupulous merchant by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Census data from 1995
    FBI Crime data from 1995

    That's the US census data for 1995 and the FBI crime statistics. During that year, Blacks committed 54% of American murders. Note that Hispanics are counted as Whites in the FBI statistics when they commit crimes, but as minorities when they are victims.

    You will notice from the census data that Whites (including Hispanics) comprise 68.5% of the nation's poor. They committed at most 46% of the nation's murders (neglecting non-Black and non-White murders).

    You'll find some equally interesting statistics from the Department of Justice at:
    Homicide by Race

    Frankly, culture matters. Crime causes poverty as well as poverty causing crime -- throwing money at things won't help. A more profitable approach would attack the horrendous level of Black illegitamacy (68%), the glamour of crime in popular Black entertainment, and the widespread welfare dependance.

  5. Re:IN CAPITALIST AMERICA by red+floyd · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Has OJ found the real killer?

    Well, at least he's looking in all the right places (golf courses). After all, the real killer was seen hitting golf balls in OJ's yard that night...

    --
    The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy