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The Next Frontier of Consumer Exploitation By Corporations
First time accepted submitter alisonuw writes "So what if Google knows where I'm planning my next vacation and suggests hotels for me? Sure, it's creepy, but is there really any harm in companies tracking my info to target ads to me? Professor Ryan Calo (UW law) is out with a new paper that demonstrates the real harm behind these practices, making consumers vulnerable to making decisions that go against their self-interest (ie: predatory lending, price inflation, etc). The Atlantic has an article today that outlines the new research."
You need a paper to demonstrate that other people making decisions for you is not necessarily in your best interest? Seriously?
And yes, they make the decisions. You are a fool if you think that it's just suggestions. I've worked in corporate environments long enough to know that the people who "prepare" the decision are really the ones making it, because by the selection you make, the way you present the alternatives and the data you choose to use or discard, you can pretty much make sure that any of the choices left is in your interest.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The question is not does it, or does it not matter companies are tracking us, they ARE tracking us regardless
The real question is what are we, the consumers, going to do?
We can be passive - and let them (the corporations / governments ) manipulate our lives with all their suggestions/advises via their ad/marketing/propaganda campaign (as has been happening for the past few generations)
We can be on guard and do our best to make sure that our lives stays our lives, not the lives the governments / corporations want us to have
The society in the future will have a new gap, a gap in between people who live their lives as individuals, or, people who live their lives as sheeples
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Seriously. Who here pays attention to the ads or does not have an ad blocker?
I never even see ads anymore. Even the ones my ad blocker does not block.
This only affects stupid people.
Stupid people don't need protection.... ...wait...
They don't need protection from the world. Stupid people need protection as in condoms so they stop breeding.
No, your definition is bogus.
Advertising is meant to inform you that Coke is available here. You were thirsty anyway or you wouldn't have noticed it.
Advertising a steaming fresh sack of shit won't get you customers who were really looking for new shoes.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
This only affects stupid people
HA !
Those who think that they are not stupid, ARE
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If you have a phone, as you walk around a shopping center or store will are being tracked.
,the future of consumer exploitation is terrifying.
If you linger in the baby aisle, expect to get baby ads and coupons without asking for them. You might even find out your teenage daughter is pregnant from coupons you get.
Very intrusive: Get served ads to your phone and all devices based on store browsing and the kind of stores. You have no choice to opt out.
Medium intrusive: Get asked if you would like coupons for what they think you like. Ads on devices or apps that are ad supported are targeted.
Low level: You get coupons on your receipt based on your walking pattern and habits. (this already happens)
Future exploitation, the terrifying final form.
Location based A.I. scans your physical body for any and all brand name clothing. Tied into the parking lot cameras, it logs your car and plate number. Using sets of data (The estimated outfit cost, car value, car color psychological assessment, insurance carrier) it evaluates your income bracket and psychological profile.
A.I. scans all store records for purchases that match what you are wearing. If the purchases is detected to have not been made at the store, coupons and ads targeted at those articles are sent (You too can get Feragamo shoes here).
Each time you stop, the time and location and nearby goods are noted. Any regular walking patterns are logged. If you walk the same pattern every time, the lcd screens change to ads targeting you along your route.
As you approach merchandise displays, eye tracker record what items you look at and what in the adverts your eyes followed.
As follows: 15seconds female cleavage, 5seconds product, 1second dog.
Unregulated
How about NOT even showing a better-off individual cheaper alternatives on a flight search.
How about NOT even showing a better-off individual cheaper alternatives on a flight search.
Which is scummy, to be sure, but doesn't sound anything like OP's hyperbolic scenario of doom.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Coke is a fresh sack of shit, it's not water, juice or milk and provides no significant benefits at a remarkable markup. The fact that this was your example is not even ironic, it's simply sad.
As always, responsible people should ensure they check the facts before spending money. /sarcasm
I find the Internet, including Goggle quite useful for this, actually...
Recently I got a much better price for renting a car via a specialist site than I could on the renter's own website, and it's often the same for hotels.
So yes, I can believe that you may not get the best deal if, say, Hertz partners with Google to target you.
But nobody is forcing you to click on the ad...
Yet.
I had to work with unemployed people quite a bit in my life. It's fascinating how they are being pressed into "jobs" for ... well, whatever the economy currently needs. No matter whether they can do it, whether they have any kind of affinity with it or whether they are absolutely unsuitable for it.
Over here, to keep your unemployment money, you have to jump through the hoops presented to you. So people do it. You get sent to various training courses that change in interesting ways over time. About 10 years ago, everyone was sent to a "web designer" and "network administration" class. Today, they prefer to send people to classes dealing with nursing and geriatric care. Again, whether the people have any kind of social skill, whether they can actually lift weights that easily pass the 100 lbs (or 200 lbs, depending on the person they have to lug around), whether they have any kind of affinity with it, doesn't matter.
People are exchangeable. And expendable.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
No, your definition is bogus.
No, your definition is bogus.
Advertising (really marketing) is at least two things:
1) To inform you of options to fill a need.
2) To convince you that you have a need.
(1) is useful in society, (2) is destructive to society
The problem is that practically all marketing tends to (2) over time. For example, sexy girls in advertisements. When they are in ads for stereotypically men's products (like beer) its obvious they are of type 2, but even when they are in ads for women's products like clothing they are still manipulative because they tell women if you just had this product you would be sexy too.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Brick and mortar stores are legally barred from overtly providing different pricing for customers based on age or gender. They can't have a price tag on an item that reads:
Women Over 35 - $32.99
Women 35 And Under - $29.99
Men 38 And Over - $28.99
Men Under 38 - $26.99
However, common loyalty programs at stores profile customers by age, gender, purchasing habits, and all sorts of other demographic criteria and selectively issue coupons and promotions that have the same result (e.g., a drug store might print out a coupon for a male customer for lady's perfume to incentivize a purchase before Mother's Day, but wouldn't issue such a coupon to female customer who is inherently more likely to buy the product).
- Presenting tariff plans, insurance plans, deals 7 packages, any-kind-of-option in complex and opaque ways that use 'friendly' language, and pics of smiling people — so they can channel you towards whatever 'sounds' like a good deal.
- Changing the way the issue is discussed so the opinions form to 'prefer' what lobbyists favour (creationism, climate change, health-care, the wars, politicians)
- The entire PR and lobbying industry and everything it does.
And thats just the top of my head. — Did you seriously think you invented all the choices you made? You were shown pre-prepared points to discuss, and you just chose one. Not much freedom (or intelligence) in that.
Then they make people who think outside the norm seem like freaks, so you tend to ignore them, rather than discuss them. Try this for size: http://www.alternet.org/print/visions/chomsky-us-poses-number-threats-future-humanity-our-youll-never-hear-about-it-our-free-press
This kind of thing already happens. There was a controversy a while back when it was discovered that travel sites show more expensive travel options to Mac users first. Since macs cost more than PC's it was presumed their users had more disposable income.
we're going to do absolutely nothing. We're too busy living our daily lives. You're guard will slip as daily life grinds you down, and you'll gradually join the sheeple. My history teacher said it best. "I was a radical in high school. Then I got a job, a car, house wife kids, the works. One I had something to lose I got real conservative real fast".
Me? I pick my poison. I'd rather have a strong central gov't I can at least try to influence and use. Maybe if we can get the schools to indoctrinate kids on the importance of democratic participation instead of the intrinsic beauty of capitalism....
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
not saying it _does_ work, but I think you'll find people are too busy living their day to day lives (work, family, kids, social networking) to monitor all the bad things companies do. There's a reason we started regulating companies. They did really bad things until we did.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Coke is a significant jolt of caffeine and sugar. If that's what you want, buy it.
If, on the other hand, you prefer your caffeine hot, buy coffee or tea, and sugar it to taste....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Note well, some media outlets have praised the Obama campaign for using "Big Data" tools to target voters. Do you want or expect this chief executive to hypocritically discourage business from using the same techniques? http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/508836/how-obama-used-big-data-to-rally-voters-part-1/
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
When you give someone money that they didn't earn, it's fair to attach strings to that money.
Your conclusion is correct. Your assumption isn't. I have earned any unemployment money I might get all my life, by paying into the system. In my country, there is an amount deducted from your monthly wage specifically to cover unemployment. It's basically an insurance system, except that it's state-run.
So yes, anyone who did work before becoming unemployed did in fact earn that money.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org