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Ads With Your Name On Them
eldavojohn writes "The NYTimes is running an interesting blog piece on the answers Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, & Google gave to the question: Can they show you an ad with your name on it? The results: 'Microsoft says it could use only a person's first name [which it doesn't consider personal information]. AOL and Yahoo could use a full name but only on their sites, not the other sites on which they place ads. Google isn't sure; it probably could, but it doesn't know the names of most of its users.' Now whether or not they would use this information is a different story. AOL has no plans to, Yahoo is open to it, and Microsoft has implemented a technological barrier preventing it (despite behavioral and demographic data being served to the ad companies). Although Google might use name information at some point, they don't now do so; nor do they use behavioral or demographic data."
How can ms claim a person's GIVEN name is NOT personal? Sound's like they've got too much duroquinone in their brains. The NERVE of them to assert a thing.
As for "I felt it was intrusive, since anybody at a neighboring pump now knows my name, but kind of a minor annoyance.", imagine people who shop safeway.
After a shopper's membership card is scanned, and the goods are bagged and the customer is ready to go, the drone cashier will usually pipe (pretty much for ALL in earshot to hear), "Thank you, Mr/Mrs/Ms (last name)".
THAT bugs the SHIT out of me. So, I would interrupt them -- as they say "Thank you" -- with "NO LAST NAME/DON'T SAY MY LAST NAME."
Women or anyone who might be targets of stalkers should especially take great offence to this. Why? Well, some asshole/creeper could follow a mark to their car, then note the license plate. Then the creeper can proceed to obtain more information by following the person and getting their address. Next, rummage any accessible mailbox or driveway mail or deliveries and note th presumed name.
Safeway could someday become "Dangerway". It's ONE thing for someone giving public speeches to be known by all. It's entirely another when a shopper is stripped of anonymity without their prior consent. So, now, i use a valid Safeway card with a borked name, and I ONLY use cash so as to not commingle my real and shopper names.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Granted, I was very un-hopeful when that flick came out, on the one hand, Philip K. Dick, on the other three (and both legs and much of the torso) was Tom Cruise. Still the personalized ads bit was there. Funny how they offered him pink clothing.
... so I'm offtopic... I admit it. But its my karma.
And the sad part that it was the screenplay that ruined it not Tom Cruise. I mean really, this isn't oooh his pants changed colour, or his gun should have been in the drawer and suddenly its with him type stuff... there were pivotal problems with the entire fundamental premise to the movie... right down to fucking up what the 'minority report' itself was.
Really could they have made a movie that missed the point more?
I can't wait for Hollywood to do a blockbuster movie based on the short story "the cold equations" and somehow have everyone live.
Alright
Well, the creeper might, after following the mark, find out the hailed name differs from the address. Could be the mark lives in a household of someone else, or just stopped there first, or is married but under a different name than the other spouse.
This isn't Mayberry RFD, or Hazel, or Green Acres. This is AMERIKA of the info age. Some entities respect privacy, and some don't. Those who don't put the "k" in America.
Out of sheer respect, stores should simply use anonymous honorifics: "Thank you so much, sir. I hope you shop with us again. By the way, just a head's up: next week we have a promo/price reduction..." Empower and please the customer THAT way. Other than stroking egos of a few minor customers, the only good that could come out of blurting out people's names is if two long-lost relatives found each other because tho they have different paper names, they both know of changed names and now voila! They reunite. And, that is so rare an event as to not justify blurting out people's names.
Blurting names also confirms the name of a mark who conscientiously and carefully LIED to her follower about her name, only to be f*scked over by her emerging stalker.
THAT's why it matters. We don't have the luxury of knowing who is our freak and our stalker.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Who is the cretinous asshole running around with the "off-topic" wand? Dumbass, this thread WAS on topic. Someone opened a line about gas pumps running names on the display, tied in with ads in other forms of purchase activities.
Where the f*ck are the on-duty moderators who should be slaying/disciplining the off-topic creds of those who overly slam-dunk and piss off people like me with irritating commentary. This isn't "Kiss-Slash-Dick", it's "Give your OPINION". "Off-topic", when abused, is slightly below a form of retribution for inability to outright CENSOR someone's comment off the site.
For some, the regrettable thing is that they cannot separate their identity nor machine history from their search/logon activity and they are tracked by cookie crumbs. Gas pumps, credit cards, redeemable shopper rewards points... ALL of this is in some way connected.
Off-topic my ass. Must be a ms or a dangerway-fanboy?
Slashdot needs a complaint metric to deal with overly-endowed moderators. "IF you feel your comment was unjustifiably slain/assailed/moderated, check why, and random readers will be invited to review your comments. If you've been abused, the moderator will be punished. If you wrongly/falsely complain, you will lose for 5 days the permission to submit...." (SOME site (might have even been slash) years ago did something like this...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
If I had mod points now I would definitely mod you Off-Topic.
"I like my sex like my basketball, one on one with as little dribbling as possible." - Lt. Frank Drebin
Oh come on moderator, that was funny!