What Data Mining Firms Know About You

storagedude writes "Time writer Joel Stein spent three months learning what data mining companies know about him. After learning everything the companies had profiled about him (some of it inaccurate) — social security number, age, marital status, religion, income, debt, interests, browsing and spending habits — he had a surprising reaction: complacency. '... oddly, the more I learned about data mining, the less concerned I was. Sure, I was surprised that all these companies are actually keeping permanent files on me. But I don't think they will do anything with them that does me any harm. There should be protections for vulnerable groups, and a government-enforced opt-out mechanism would be great for accountability. But I'm pretty sure that, like me, most people won't use that option. Of the people who actually find the Ads Preferences page — and these must be people pretty into privacy — only 1 in 8 asks to opt out of being tracked. The rest, apparently, just like to read privacy rules."

Comments

Re:Complacency is dangerous

[adonoman]

Trust doesn't necessarily come into play. I expect corporations to make money off of me. I'd rather they do that by presenting me with ads I'm interested in. I trust them not to steal my identity insofar as if they're already breaking the law, adding new laws isn't going to change anything. Last year I got a great deal on my laptop because whatever profiling they were doing decided that I was in the market for a laptop. Instead of paying $1000 for a $1000 laptop like I was planning, I got a $2500 laptop for $1000. As far as Im concerned it was win-win - I got a great laptop, and they got my money.

Re:"Trust doesn't necessarily come into play...."

[Mr. Slippery]

Uh, the company is the people.

No, the company is a legal entity, quite possible the immortal sociopathic form of legal person known as a corporation.

One of my girlfriends works for Bank of America. She, and her co-workers I've met, are great. Yet the corporation is an evil corporate bastard.

How can a structure of great people turn out evil? The same way a structure of unconscious nerve cells can turn out to have a consciousness. The evil that a company does is (usually) an emergent property. It's not enough to trust the people -- you have to trust the structure, and for any large for-profit company that's a very foolish thing to do.