How To Protect Your Privacy and Make Money

itwbennett writes "You have precious personal information; marketers are willing to pay good money for it; and now there are services to broker the deal. London-based Allow Ltd., for example, negotiates with marketers on your behalf and cuts you in on the deal. One Allow customer, Giles Sequeira, made a whopping $10 for letting a single credit card company know that he's in the market for new plastic. In the US, a company called Personal is starting a similar pay-for-data service, and you can hop on its waiting list now." Anyone selling bridges?

Comments

Posting anonymous so that...

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anonymous so that... Bots can't dig my posting habits!!

Re:Posting anonymous so that...

[antdude]

/. bots dig with your IP address and trace back even through proxies. [grin]

Protect Your Privacy

[iYk6]

How does this protect your privacy? It sounds more like selling your privacy.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[Dunbal]

Obvious slashvertisment.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[alvinrod]

It doesn't, but if you're personal information is going to be whored out anyway, you might as well at least be the one pimping it.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[igreaterthanu]

Once you have sold all of your privacy, all the privacy you have left (none) is 100% protected.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[causality]

How does this protect your privacy? It sounds more like selling your privacy.

I've argued before that the way online advertisers track your browsing habits and otherwise take your personal data without first asking is like a form of piracy. It absolutely amounts to treating you as a resource like so much lumber or livestock. What I found was that many people are willing to make excuses and rationalizations for it. Some of them even acted like it's some kind of public service to invade your privacy in order to spam you with ads for things you are more likely to buy, as though you couldn't decide for yourself what you want, as though it were some epitome of altruism.

So, now that more people are attaching a dollar value to their personal data will that finally be what it takes to get them to value their privacy and reject the idea that they should ever have to surrender it involuntarily? At least in the USA the almighty dollar seems to convince people more readily than the soundest of principles.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[spun]

I thought that at first, too, because it sounds like a press release. But slashdot user itwbennett has an actual posting history and submissions that include various things of interest to geeks that don't appear to be corporate press releases. If this is a slashvertisement, it is a slashvertisement for IT World, not these services.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[hedwards]

Yo, got your 16 digits right here, they're barely legal and ready to do naughty things for cash.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[flowwolf]

When you visit somebodies web server, the information regarding that visit is not your personal property. If you don't want them to record and mine your activities on their website, don't visit that website. Get noscript and live on the internet that way

Thats like walking into a 7/11 and bitching because they're recording you without asking. Its like getting on public transit and bitching at the driver because there are passenger counters installed. Its like going to your local politician up in arms about the traffic counter installed on the road you take home. Frankly, I have no idea what personal data is supposed to mean in this context. You're visiting somebody else's domain. How is a record of that and what you do there, belong to you in any way shape or form?

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[icebike]

How does this protect your privacy? It sounds more like selling your privacy.

Well, it could work out if it were turned around a bit (and the middle man eliminated).

If every time they contacted you (mail, email, phone) with a sales pitch, they had to send that 10 dollar bill along as payment for your attention and use of your mailing address, it would greatly reduce the value of a list of random names that some company is trying to sell them. If a million name list costs 10 million dollars to use each time it is used, the value and the usage of the list and the collection of the same will fall drastically.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[Kazoo the Clown]

Protect your privacy OR make money is more like it...

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[causality]

When you visit somebodies web server, the information regarding that visit is not your personal property. If you don't want them to record and mine your activities on their website, don't visit that website. Get noscript and live on the internet that way

Thats like walking into a 7/11 and bitching because they're recording you without asking. Its like getting on public transit and bitching at the driver because there are passenger counters installed. Its like going to your local politician up in arms about the traffic counter installed on the road you take home. Frankly, I have no idea what personal data is supposed to mean in this context. You're visiting somebody else's domain. How is a record of that and what you do there, belong to you in any way shape or form?

It would be courteous of you to learn what browser tracking is, how it is performed, and what sorts of data can be gathered before deciding to speak about the subject. That would save me some time and Slashdot some bandwidth.

That the owner of a particular site knows my IP address visited that specific site is not the problem. In short, the problem is that there are multiple ways in which an organization can track your browsing across many different sites that said organization does not own.

This is not like complaining that the local 7/11 recorded my visit. This is more like the local 7/11 hiring someone to follow me around and record every store I visit.

Now that the very most basic bit of knowledge about this subject has been spoonfed to you, perhaps you could revise your position in light of this new information.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[flowwolf]

Even though there are ways to be tracked in such a manner across domain, its not accepted. You're just making justifications for hating all of online tracking, including those done by the domain you're visiting. Sites that perform these shady techniques to track your browsing are not smiled upon by the status quo. You're talking about all forms of tracking in your first point, and then justify such a position by presenting techniques usually reserved for use only by porno sites.

This kind of tracking has been happening for ages anyways. If you buy gas with your CC every time, that data can be used to track your travels. Even your licence plate driving past cameras can be used to track you. The point is, you leave cookie crumbs everywhere you go doing everything you do. How does this cookie trail even begin to belong to you? How is it YOUR data? These are the main questions of my original point but you completely dodged them. Instead you chose to attack my intelligence. Bravo Sir.

I don't think I need to explain to you the facts about bandwidth as I assume you're trying somehow to discredit my opinion with that entirely off topic comment; However, you may need to know that slashdot's entire purpose for being are these discussions. You seem to need to be spoon fed this obvious fact though so here comes the airplane open the hanger! VROOOM

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[h00manist]

I thought that at first, too, because it sounds like a press release. But slashdot user itwbennett has an actual posting history and submissions that include various things of interest to geeks that don't appear to be corporate press releases. If this is a slashvertisement, it is a slashvertisement for IT World, not these services.

And are you an actual person, or are you a virtual person creating a virtual testimony to create a virtual good reputation for your other virtual profile.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[calmofthestorm]

Two years ago I was shopping around for a credit card. I don't care who knew; indeed I told my friends soliciting advice. Earn money too? Sure.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[AmonTheMetalhead]

HBGary?

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[Kilrah_il]

Although you took care to attack your parent's knowledge of computer basics, he does have a point you did not address: The only information captured automatically about me is that IP X visited the site. The rest of the info is stuff I gave them voluntarily (my name, etc.). After that, the sites just cooperate (either directly or through a third party) to aggregate all the instances of IP X visiting their site. It is not like 7/11 hiring somebody to follow me, but more like 7/11 talking with WalMart and any other shop in the area and asking them if I went there. You may not like this, but your privacy was not invaded. The details of your public appearance was shared among different entities.
Of course, if they share private details (name, CC, gender, whether or not you like bondage [/joke, no trolling], etc.) without consent in their TOS then we have a problem. Now you might say that the details of what they share are buried in a 10 page, small-fonted TOS document, but that is another discussion. We can open a new anti-legalese rant thread.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[causality]

Even though there are ways to be tracked in such a manner across domain, its not accepted. You're just making justifications for hating all of online tracking, including those done by the domain you're visiting. Sites that perform these shady techniques to track your browsing are not smiled upon by the status quo. You're talking about all forms of tracking in your first point, and then justify such a position by presenting techniques usually reserved for use only by porno sites.

This kind of tracking has been happening for ages anyways. If you buy gas with your CC every time, that data can be used to track your travels. Even your licence plate driving past cameras can be used to track you. The point is, you leave cookie crumbs everywhere you go doing everything you do. How does this cookie trail even begin to belong to you? How is it YOUR data? These are the main questions of my original point but you completely dodged them. Instead you chose to attack my intelligence. Bravo Sir.

I don't think I need to explain to you the facts about bandwidth as I assume you're trying somehow to discredit my opinion with that entirely off topic comment; However, you may need to know that slashdot's entire purpose for being are these discussions. You seem to need to be spoon fed this obvious fact though so here comes the airplane open the hanger! VROOOM

You're just making justifications for hating all of online tracking, including those done by the domain you're visiting.

Yes, it's just because I'm so full of hate. It can't possibly be that I oppose something on principle. What is this, mainstream politics?

Sites that perform these shady techniques to track your browsing are not smiled upon by the status quo.

What, you mean like Google? How about Doubleclick? It wouldn't be hard to name plenty of others who perform tracking but I think my point is made. That's another thing you'd have known if you informed yourself about this subject prior to taking a position on it.

You're talking about all forms of tracking in your first point, and then justify such a position by presenting techniques usually reserved for use only by porno sites.

You can use Google to find a porn site but I wouldn't call Google a pornographer.

This kind of tracking has been happening for ages anyways. If you buy gas with your CC every time, that data can be used to track your travels. Even your licence plate driving past cameras can be used to track you. The point is, you leave cookie crumbs everywhere you go doing everything you do. How does this cookie trail even begin to belong to you? How is it YOUR data? These are the main questions of my original point but you completely dodged them. Instead you chose to attack my intelligence. Bravo Sir.

Yes, that kind of tracking is nearly universal. That doesn't make it alright. This is Ethics 101 material here. It's "MY" data because it was created by me, it is about me, and would not exist if I had not created it with my actions. It's "MY" data because the purpose of the credit card companies is to provide a useful service to their customers and the purpose of the local government that issued my license plate is to serve its citizens. Doing business with them doesn't make them my master. This is not difficult to understand.

In some European countries they have strong privacy protection laws. The laws allow you to basically own your private data so that companies need your consent in order to collect and use it. This system of monetizing your private data (so that someone who takes it without paying is basically stealing something of value) is another way to arrange the same level of control.

Also, I didn't insult your intelligence. I pointed out that you failed to understand what I was talking about and that bothering t

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[AJH16]

From the article, the company that provides the service uses UK laws to track down marketing databases that have your information and files requests to remove the information on your behalf. So basically they scrub your info from any competitors databases allowing you to control where your information goes.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[spun]

I just showed you how to find out, do you need a tutorial? Look at the user's posting history, diaries, and submission. It should be easy enough to tell if it's a real account.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[sabt-pestnu]

a) Unlike computers, we don't yet have software to virtualize people. Though it's a neat concept, isn't it? "Restore from save: This will wipe all memory since last save. Continue? Y/N"

b) We are all of us virtual persons here. I doubt your friends call you "h00manist" any more than mine call me "Sabt Pestnu".

c) As reputation is the province of the beholder, not the subject, "virtual reputation" only makes sense if the entity is not a "real person". I guess that actuarial software could hold a "virtual reputation". Many MMORPGs record your character's reputation with factions in the game, so I guess that counts as well. Perhaps the "friends, fans, foes, freaks" for /. accounts counts as virtual reputation also.

d) Virtual testimony, that I'll buy. Since it's not "in person", it could count, I guess. I'd consider it more "written testemony" though, since there's no real presence involved. ... and I'm overthinking a virtual jest, aren't I? Still, it was an entertaining session of mulling.

Re:Protect Your Privacy

[spun]

Fuck you, AC troll. I'm not wasting my time on you. Think whatever your tiny brain is capable of thinking, I don't give a fuck, because YOU aren't a real person, you are an AC and you simply do not matter. You are a nobody, but I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. I'm tired of pretending I'm NOT a total bitchin' rock star from mars. I'm an F-18, bro, and I will destroy you in the air and deploy my ordnance to the ground

allow seems to offer 10 quid as a signup fee,

[qwerty8ytrewq]

Although this does seem a bit like getting paid to donate blood, somehow good but wrong... this guy has some interesting writing on how selling your 'private' data can be a good idea.

Re:allow seems to offer 10 quid as a signup fee,

[h4rr4r]

What is wrong with getting paid to donate blood?

I have blood someone wants it, why should I not be at least paid for the time it takes to get it?

Re:allow seems to offer 10 quid as a signup fee,

[shentino]

Being paid to donate blood, a renewable resource, isn't wrong in my opinion. It's a bona fide incentive to part with something you need, as well as spend time draining it out.

At any rate, it's better than a blood tax.

Re:allow seems to offer 10 quid as a signup fee,

[sandytaru]

I donate platelets regularly and get paid in T-shirts and cookies. I think it's a fair deal.

What an amazing offer

[Stan Vassilev]

One Allow customer, Giles Sequeira, made a whopping $10 for letting a single credit card company know that he's in the market for new plastic.

If you make $10 selling your own personal information, guess where they'll recover their $10 from, a bit later. You. And they'll make a profit.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

Considering I have never paid a late fee or interest on a credit card since college, please tell me how they do that. I always pay it off every two weeks and spend the rewards when I get X amount. How are they making money?

My real interest is because if this does make them money I will probably stop doing it. My biggest reason besides the rewards for doing this is to hurt these banks.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Auroch]

Considering I have never paid a late fee or interest on a credit card since college, please tell me how they do that. I always pay it off every two weeks and spend the rewards when I get X amount. How are they making money?

My real interest is because if this does make them money I will probably stop doing it. My biggest reason besides the rewards for doing this is to hurt these banks.

You mean, the fact that there is a hidden cost of using a credit card built into your daily life doesn't bother you? Of course, you don't see the price increase, the merchants build it in. Generally speaking, you can get a cash discounted price at a mom and pop store for simply paying debit or cash - because then they don't pay the CC company and the related merchant fees.

So, yeah, I guess just so long as you don't actually *see* the increased cost, it won't bother you. And for big-box stores, those prices are part-and-parcel of their merch, so abstaining from using a CC may not help you there ... but if you're okay promoting the practice, then keep on plastic-ing.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

I have never gotten a cash discount at any store that I know of. Heck, if they offered it I would go for it.

I am fine with increased costs I cannot change, no point in worrying about that.

Re:What an amazing offer

[camperdave]

Considering I have never paid a late fee or interest on a credit card since college, please tell me how they do that. I always pay it off every two weeks and spend the rewards when I get X amount. How are they making money?

My real interest is because if this does make them money I will probably stop doing it. My biggest reason besides the rewards for doing this is to hurt these banks.

It's not you they make money from. It is the person who does not pay off the balance, and thus incurs interest charges.

Actually, come to think of it, there may be per transaction fees between the merchant and the credit card company, allowing them to make money off of every purchase you make on your card whether you pay interest or not. Some places will charge you less if you pay cash.

Re:What an amazing offer

[igreaterthanu]

Considering I have never paid a late fee or interest on a credit card since college

You are paying the extra 3 or so percent that all the merchants increase their prices by to pay for the credit card fees. Now the fees go to the company who paid you the $10. At 3% and $10, they only need you to spend $334 before they make money on the deal.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

What places?

I have heard this claim, but never found such a place.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Idimmu Xul]

Half the independent newsagents/corner shops in the UK will charge an extra 50p to £1 if you pay by card (either credit or debit)

Re:What an amazing offer

[DanTheStone]

I've visited Rhode Island several times, and several gas stations there have 2 prices listed now. You pay ~5 cents less per gallon of gas if you pay cash.

This was in the Warwick / West Warwick area.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Ibiwan]

Arco. Any Mexican grubbery in So Cal. Many small grocery stores.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

But If all merchants have this price increase and I cannot avoid paying it, why should I worry about that?

Sounds like it is better to take the $10 and at least get something out of the deal.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

Not sure if I think saving less than a dollar on a fill up is worth going inside to pay. Seems like it would be if I drove commercially or something.

Re:What an amazing offer

[RingDev]

Most stores CC agreements prevent them from marketing it or even doing it. But if you ask a Ma & Pa store owner at the register "is it any cheaper if I pay with cash?" You'll usually hear about their CC fees.

One local game store around here openly acknoledges it. They can't give you a discount due to their contract with their CC provider, but they do openly point out that you are doing more to support the store by paying with cash or debit.

-Rick

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

Oh wow, support their game store. Do they donate all their profits to the poor? Maybe they sell everything at nearly cost and operate as a non-profit?

Otherwise I fail to see why I should care. They are trying to make money off of me just like the credit card folks. How are they any more deserving?

Re:What an amazing offer

[flowwolf]

You're missing the point. They profit off of you every time you use the card. The merchant is charged that cost and their costs are raised in price so that you have the convenience of paying with your card. If you think that using your credit card daily is sticking it to the banks... you're very mistaken. Thats exactly what they want you to do.

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

But I cannot escape those raised prices. By at least giving nothing more to the banks I come out ahead.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Stregano]

Because they will not find ways to fuck you in the ass like a CC company will

Re:What an amazing offer

[Faux_Pseudo]

The rewards don't hurt the banks. They hurt the merchants you redeem them at. They are the ones that take the hit, not the card company/bank.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Ghengis Khak]

You mean, the fact that there is a hidden cost of using a credit card built into your daily life doesn't bother you? Of course, you don't see the price increase, the merchants build it in. Generally speaking, you can get a cash discounted price at a mom and pop store for simply paying debit or cash - because then they don't pay the CC company and the related merchant fees. So, yeah, I guess just so long as you don't actually *see* the increased cost, it won't bother you. And for big-box stores, those prices are part-and-parcel of their merch, so abstaining from using a CC may not help you there ... but if you're okay promoting the practice, then keep on plastic-ing.

In addition to this flaw, from a psychological standpoint people also spend more when using a credit card.

Re:What an amazing offer

[camperdave]

Check out small computer parts places in your local Chinatown.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Em Adespoton]

They also make money by selling your purchase history to third parties.

As for the charging less for cash, banks, credit card companies and credit processing companies all get a cut when you pay plastic, and the merchant isn't officially allowed to adjust their price for credit payment. To get around this, some companies add in bonuses for cash purchases. I usually see this at import/export companies, specialty stores, and tech stores.

For that matter, I've also seen this for online payments (PayPal for instance will take a cut off the top if you receive payment via credit card). Many people get around this by charging more for "shipping and handling" if you pay by credit card.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Em Adespoton]

Bzzt. By at least giving nothing more to the banks you come out less behind than you would have. You escape the raised prices by living in a credit card-free society. OR, you escape the raised prices by shopping local, paying cash, and having the extra money go to your local business who then in turn has more money to spend on what YOU are selling, without the money being siphoned out of the local economy to be hoarded by credit companies/banks.

That said, I pay plastic for everything, because I admit that I live in a global economy (and the credit card companies have been my customers on multiple occasions) ;)

Re:What an amazing offer

[moonbender]

You, individually, can't easily escape those raised prices. But clearly, if enough people decided NOT to use credit cards, the market power of the CC companies would be reduced, with all kinds of consequences. Even if you never pay them a dime (beyond the transaction fee), you're extremely valuable to them just as "another satisfied customer".

Re:What an amazing offer

[Auroch]

I have never gotten a cash discount at any store that I know of. Heck, if they offered it I would go for it.

I am fine with increased costs I cannot change, no point in worrying about that.

I am okay, accepting the things I cannot change.

But I am not accepting the things I don't think I can change, because I never bothered to asked, because I wasn't informed enough to do so.

I guess the problem is "how to know that you don't know" ...

Re:What an amazing offer

[Auroch]

Oh wow, support their game store. Do they donate all their profits to the poor? Maybe they sell everything at nearly cost and operate as a non-profit?

Otherwise I fail to see why I should care. They are trying to make money off of me just like the credit card folks. How are they any more deserving?

You mean, why should you support a real-life store that provides you with real benefits, as opposed to a nebulous company which provides you with a way to access a highly predatory loan with an outrageous interest rate?

I'd like to know why you insist on using a CC when a line of credit is usually 1/2 the cost...

Re:What an amazing offer

[martin-boundary]

You can often escape credit card payment/processing surcharges by paying in cash. Have you never been in a store where the clerk told you that paying by credit card would cost 1 or 2 dollars more?

Re:What an amazing offer

[h4rr4r]

CC costs me nothing, I pay it every 2 weeks. CC companies hire people, give me cash back and a free loan. What does the game store do that compares?

What line of credit provides cash back?

Re:What an amazing offer

[joocemann]

Gotta be pretty naive to not see the benefits of small local businesses.

Re:What an amazing offer

[mattack2]

You seem to be missing the point. I, and h4rr4r, pay off our credit cards every month.

Thus it is *more* convenient _and cheaper_ (due to rewards, which yes, I realize is simply giving me back a bit of what they charged the store) to use credit cards. The VAST majority of stores take credit cards nowadays, so they must be doing it for a reason.

The only time I see cash discount is at (many but not all) gas stations. Though most of the time, the actual price paid when taking into account rewards, the credit card price is the same as the lowest cash only place (e.g. Arco, aka BP, which I don't want to support nowadays anyway.. but I haven't used them for years because of the cash only thing).

Re:What an amazing offer

[mattack2]

Though that $10 really doesn't seem like much, since I know of one card where you get enough for a $50 rebate right off the bat when getting the card. Yes, I know that this says that he was only "in the market for new plastic" in this case.. But I doubt there are a bunch of different credit card companies willing to do this.

Re:What an amazing offer

[mattack2]

In the US, it is against the law to charge more for credit card use. They can give a cash discount, however. Yes, you may say that that is equivalent, but it means that either the posted price (e.g. for comparison) is the credit card price, or both prices are posted (e.g. gas stations).

Re:What an amazing offer

[mywhitewolf]

he acknowledges it, but doesn't care. he is already costing the CC company money by claiming rewards without paying yearly fees or interest. however for every dollar he costs them they are making $1000 back on those who have had the same mindset, found they needed to lean on the credit card for any period of time, and had to pay back the interest. i doubt they are worried because someone can stick to a budget, where as thankfully to them not many people can. tldr; the CC company make their money back on idiots, not on every single user. they make money of business regardless of if you use your CC or not.

Re:What an amazing offer

[thegarbz]

That depends on the store and how they manage their own finances. Some stores will wear the cost and place them into an increase in prices on the shelf, others will apply a surcharge on the way out. When I bought my university textbooks there was a sign at the counter showing the credit card surcharges. They differed depending on the card with MasterCard and VISA being the lowest (3%) and diners club and AMEX being the most expensive at (7%). I paid cash. There was an ATM next to the store so I think pretty much nearly everyone else did too.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Confusador]

I'd really like to know how that works, but even if you're right it still doesn't pertain. I use my rewards to pay my credit card bill; I won't claim that Cap One isn't still making money off the exchange fees, but the rewards money comes right out of their pocket.

Re:What an amazing offer

[Sky Cry]

CCs are good for the merchants too:

1) Having less cash to keep and to transfer to the bank means less risk. (They can transfer part of this risk to an ensured security company, that handles the bank transfer, but the amount of cash will affect the price of the security company service.)

2) People are more likely to buy things when they are not limited by the amount of cash they have on person.

Re:What an amazing offer

[mattack2]

The store is willingly accepting credit cards. As I said, I know of places that don't take them, and I still frequent a restaurant that is cash only.

Rule of Acquisition #121

[intellitech]

Everything is for sale..

Let's all wait for the general population to whore themselves out further.

Re:Rule of Acquisition #121

[RightwingNutjob]

Rule of Acquisition 1337: Make up random, non-sequential Rules of Acquisition to prove your point. For profit!

Re:Rule of Acquisition #121

[istartedi]

83% of the Rules of Acquisition are made up on the spot.

Re:Rule of Acquisition #121

[shentino]

I think that is indeed the unwritten rule.

Selling your data

[makubesu]

is way less profitable than selling your body.

Re:Selling your data

[RightwingNutjob]

Selling your body is way less profitable than selling other people's bodies. But hey, the legal system marches on.

Re:FUCK SLASHDOT

[h4rr4r]

Does your own asshattery mean you are now gone, or only asshattery in what is posted on the front page?

PROTIP: complaining as an AC is not going to convince anyone.

Biased information

[flowwolf]

How can you even begin to see this as effective market research? Your sample has ulterior motives. They'll answer whatever gets them the money.

Do I even have to ask why affiliate marketing schemes are on front page of slashdot?

How lame

[al0ha]

The company does not even list a Chief Information Security Office (CISO) listed among their upper level management. How can they claim to respect privacy and security when their senior level technology management expertise lies in making online maps?

cmdrtaco

[mevets]

I've never asked anything of you; please try to find something even more 'asshattish' than this and bit by bit the world becomes a better place....
I know you have it in you.

Can I sell YOUR information?

[nghate]

I wonder how long before ID theft get's applied to make money this way...

Re:Can I sell YOUR information?

[c0lo]

I wonder how long before ID theft get's applied to make money this way...

I wonder how long until "fake ID creation" will be wide-spread.

This isn't anything new

[YoshiDan]

How is this any different from the billion other survey sites on the internet (Rewards Central for example) that pay you to do surveys or polls and then give you a small payment for it?

Re:This isn't anything new

[YoshiDan]

That pay you to do surveys or polls and then give you a small payment for it

Geez that made sense... I need more coffee...

Re:This isn't anything new

[foniksonik]

It's better because it's honest. The survey people are selling your info left and right and you have no say in whom gets it.

Re:This isn't anything new

[YoshiDan]

Every survey site I've ever been a member of claims to provide their client that they are doing the research for with anonymous data only. It's nothing new at all.

With a headline like that, I actually wondered....

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

....if I'd ticked 'Ads Disabled'.

Re:Baby Boomers

[easyTree]

Get off my lawn!

Re:prior data... ip?

[History's Coming To]

Yes, in theory. The most extreme estimation of Facebook's equity-per-user is around $800, so there's your starting point. Of course, as more and more people join the more us non-members will become statistical outliers, and therefore at the interesting and maybe valuable end of the spectrum. I'm holding out for exactly this...either Facebook go bust spectacularly, fade into obscurity, or I get a few million for being one of the last to sign up. I don't really care which, the money would be nice but I'm not enough of a fool to actually believe social marketing is worth that much per person.

Information is power. Where is the information?

[h00manist]

Does anyone here know? How much information is there on people, who are the groups that have it, how to access it, and when do these laws start meeting resistance and limitations? The Habeas Data and FOIA laws give you the right to know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_Data. The lesson of Wikileaks and these laws are, information is power. We need some public information and intelligence agencies, too. Enough information for government only, we all have a right to information too.

Time perhaps to fight back?

[Hyperhaplo]

Perhaps it is time to fight back?

I dislike that any web site I visit can pull irrelevant information from my browser.. perhaps a privacy option or plugin for Firefox which whitelists information provided to websites?

Perhaps allow either an override or random values to be sent instead?

We know that Mozilla is looking into similar options - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334615/Privacy-victory-Firefox-plans-stop-firms-tracking-look-online.html - but this is addressing the problem at a higher layer.

Any thoughts out there?

I currently run NoScript, AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, Better Privacy plugins.. but nothing I've seen can prevent or change data sent to the web server.

Re:Time perhaps to fight back?

[andrea.sartori]

Besides the add-ons you already run, you might want to change host and agent data (and some other information) directly in about:config. Not a solution for the average Joe, but maybe worth it. And maybe somebody will write an add-on that will allow to change those data in a more user-friendly fashion.

Re:Time perhaps to fight back?

[souravzzz]

There is an addon for firefox called "user agent switcher" that can send almost any host+browser combination (including iphone, ipad etc) you want.

Re:Time perhaps to fight back?

[Hyperhaplo]

Yes, the user agent switchers are useful. I was proposing to go one step further and have an interface for any information send to / from the browser.

Hmm. A thought. Much of what we see today comes from inventive minds of the past (Sci Fi paperbacks come to mind from the 50's and 60's onward). Once the idea is out..

Re:Time perhaps to fight back?

[Hyperhaplo]

Yes, much like the cookie control panel added into Firefox.. and in FF3 kind of hidden.

Firefox has a good start - all (?) of the information available is accessible.

It's only when people realise what this data means and how it is used that they will start to move. Most of my family and friends now use firefox with adblock plus, at a minimum.

Eheh

[SmallFurryCreature]

And of course that is the reason why if I pay with iDeal (dutch bank system) I don't have to pay the transaction fee that I have to pay when I use a credit card.

Not all companies do this, most just add the transaction costs to the price. But those companies that operate in more then one country clearly show just how expensive credit cards are and it is YOU that ends up paying it.

Oh and what is the monthly, yearly cost for your credit card? Mine is 10 euro's per year and I can pay in any shop and online with ease and more security.

I'm not interested until I can pull a Chicago

[istartedi]

I'm really not interested in this until I can pull a Chicago attack on it. In other words, create lots of fake identities and get $reward*$fakes.

Of course, it'd be highly illegal unless I could find some kind of loophole. So, for all intents and purposes (heheh) I'm not interested.

Wimp.

[msauve]

My name is Rufus T. Firefly. I live at 123 Main St., Anywhere, USA. My phone number is +1(800)555-1212. My Social Security number is 078-05-1120.

How much do I get paid?

Re:Wimp.

[Nikker]

$1000, the check is being mailed to the above address as we speak. Thank you and have a good day.

Baby Boomer Advice

[progliberty]

How To Really Be An Old Geezer With the aging Baby Boomers there are now more elderly people in America than ever before. It becomes more apparent that a segment of them do not know how to age gracefully. Traditionally, this way of life was learned from extensive contact with and careful observation of the previous generation of elders. In today's fast-paced world this is less and less viable. While not intended to be 100% comprehensive, this document is a quick HOWTO reference to at least help today's old people get started. The following are the most important points, the time-tested things you really MUST do in order to be an old person in the modern world. 1. Fuck the younger generations as much and as hard as you possibly can. This point is critical and cannot be overemphasized. Most other points are related to this one. That's how key it really is. There is one great way to do that, better than all other ways combined: Vote as a single homogeneous bloc. This is politically very powerful. Use that power to run up massive debts that you have absolutely no intention of paying. That way, future generations can inherit them. You need to do this even though collectively, you are the single wealthiest demographic group in existence. Your attacks on Social Security are the best way to arrange this. Most of you have been lucky enough to be able to take personal responsibility for your life as stipulated by Madison Avenue and in all the right wing news media sources and started saving for your own retirement from a young age, and in your mind everyone else should have too, right? So what if people come into hard times, suffer from mental and physical disabilities, and the like! Vote with the right-wing republican/or market-rule "libertarian" types and do everything you can to undermine Social Security, social programs and mental health services so that nobody else can get any help and have a lifetime of homelessness and suffering to look forward to. Remember, the only thing government is good for is being a big huge prison camp for people who are unlucky or not cutthroat enough to get rich. Helping people? No way. Leave that to places like Canada, Denmark or Sweden. Sure, they are your children and your grandchildren, but so what? Now that they've grown past early childhood they aren't so cute anymore anyway. That makes it easy to treat them like you hate their guts even if you don't know you hate them. If you faithfully practice the points outlined in this document, then soon any guilt you might feel over what you've left for them to inherit will melt away and be replaced by an insatiable sense of entitlement. In the event this should fail, the constant coverage of the current pointless foreign war that the flower of our youth is going off to fight will serve as an excellent distraction. 2. Run a homeowner's association. As a retiree, it's not like you have to work for a living anymore. You've got some time on your hands. What better way to use it than to take your neighbors to court over such worthy matters as the difference between white paint and off-white paint? Those bastards should have read and memorized their 100-page homeowner's covenant before daring to modify their own property. As an added bonus, any time they spend in court and not at work means even less opportunity to pay off the debts you've left for them to inherit. Any monies they pay as a result of losing the lawsuits serves the same goal, so it's a two-for-one! 3. Drive very slowly, particularly on one-lane roads where it's difficult or impossible to safely pass you. Every time you do this means one more chance to make it hard for someone to get to work on time. That way, not only is a significant chunk of their paycheck taken from them to pay for your retirement and your medical care, but as an added bonus you add insult to this injury by hindering them from getting to work in the first place so they c