What Marketers Think They Know About You and What They Really Do

I'm not falling for that! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-04 19:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

Thought I'd look at my own data, but when they started asking for the last 4 digits of my SSN I decided I didn't care so much about what they knew about me...

Re:I'm not falling for that! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-04 20:05 · Score: 2

I haven't got an SSN you insensitive clod!
Re:I'm not falling for that! by icebike · 2013-09-04 20:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

Exactly.
I looked at what they were asking for and realized I would be giving them things
they don't know already. Why would I do that.
ItsATrap.

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Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by StripedCow · 2013-09-04 20:56 · Score: 2

No they're playing a different trick.
Basically they are saying: the information we have on you is nothing but crap, so please keep using our cookies, and stop questioning our privacy-intruding advertisement business-model.
In reality, they probably know much more about you than they reveal here.

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If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by flyingfsck · 2013-09-04 20:58 · Score: 2

Yeah, but my Mac has a MAC.

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Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Re:I'm not falling for that! by StripedCow · 2013-09-04 21:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

It will only be a matter of time until they find clustering algorithms that can separate your "interests".
Basically it is like you have three clouds of points. One cloud is your interests. One cloud is for your wife, and one cloud is for your child. For a human, it is easy to tell these clouds apart. For a computer, it will soon be easy too.

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If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by Gavagai80 · 2013-09-04 22:19 · Score: 3, Informative

It's not as if it's a trick -- they're very explicit that the purpose of the site is for you to tell them all about yourself so they can sell that info. https://aboutthedata.com/portal begins "Who are you? If you want to get the best advertising delivered to you, based on your actual interests, start here. Tell us who you are so we can show you the information used to fuel many of the marketing offers you receive from advertisers using Acxiom's digital marketing data."
As for who enjoys ads so much that they want to take time out of their day to do unpaid work for advertising companies... well I can't imagine.

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Re:I'm not falling for that! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2013-09-04 22:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

It will only be a matter of time until they find clustering algorithms that can separate your "interests".
Basically it is like you have three clouds of points. One cloud is your interests. One cloud is for your wife, and one cloud is for your child. For a human, it is easy to tell these clouds apart. For a computer, it will soon be easy too.
I was told by a retired jeweler in my neighborhood that being able to separate customers' "interests" has been a particularly acute problem in that sector for some time: Obviously, as with any business(especially one built on unnecessary luxury goods) they want to cultivate and flatter their good customers; but they ran into the persistent problem that some of their good customers had wives who did open marketing mail addressed to a household; but had not been the recipients of some or all of the jewelry purchased... That is, of course, awkward for all involved.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by aitikin · 2013-09-04 22:44 · Score: 2

Actually, they almost certainly already had it. Just based on your name and billing address, a legitimate organization which has gone through a proper series of mandated checks can pull up your credit profile, your history, etc. The last 4 of the SSN allow them to find the information if your name was, for example, "John Smith" and you lived in Boston in an apartment complex that had 4 different Smith families in it.

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"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Re:I'm not falling for that! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2013-09-04 22:46 · Score: 3

It's not as if it's a trick -- they're very explicit that the purpose of the site is for you to tell them all about yourself so they can sell that info. https://aboutthedata.com/portal begins "Who are you? If you want to get the best advertising delivered to you, based on your actual interests, start here. Tell us who you are so we can show you the information used to fuel many of the marketing offers you receive from advertisers using Acxiom's digital marketing data."
As for who enjoys ads so much that they want to take time out of their day to do unpaid work for advertising companies... well I can't imagine.
The question that occurs to me is "Are those assholes at Acxiom good enough to discern 'corrections' that make the data even less accurate than it was, or 'corrections' made to other peoples' profiles?"

It'll be a cold day in hell before I volunteer better data to scum like them; but I think that polluting the database would be my good deed for the day, probably my good deed for the month if I could automate it.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2013-09-04 23:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

I have a PO Box as my billing address and I don't provide any portion of my SSN to anyone. It would be impossible for them to have any information on me.
You just keep right on telling yourself that.

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Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by king+neckbeard · 2013-09-05 00:13 · Score: 2

But what about people who live double lives or have seemingly contradicting interests? The red blooded conservative crossdresser, for example.

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This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by Oligonicella · 2013-09-05 00:18 · Score: 2

And if you're amongst that "almost", you should fill out their database why? I avoided it for precisely the reason the GP stated. It they *don't* already have it, I'm not giving it willingly.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by Oligonicella · 2013-09-05 00:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

If any site asks you things of that nature, *always* deny. Screw the veracity of their stored data.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by __aaltlg1547 · 2013-09-05 00:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

The Social Security Administration and the IRS and every employer you've ever had knows it, at the very least. But those are the only people who need to know it and there's no reason to give it to anyone else.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by realityimpaired · 2013-09-05 00:41 · Score: 2

Your bank probably has a legitimate reason to know it as well.... though I'm in Canada, and we have different rules from the US.
A partial Social Insurance Number was on my Equifax credit report last time I pulled it, and I've taken out large loans from the bank before. (> $30,000... I financed a new car through the bank... slightly higher interest than the "1.9%" that the car company was offering, but with the option to pay out early where the car company didn't meant that my loan was paid off faster and ended up costing less).
Re:I'm not falling for that! by geminidomino · 2013-09-05 00:42 · Score: 5, Informative

Don't forget every insurance company those employers have ever provided benefits for, any bank you've ever had an account with, and if you've gone to college, they've got it, too -- and, if so, trust me, it's out there now.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by Daetrin · 2013-09-05 01:07 · Score: 3, Informative

Out of curiosity, i tried putting down my real name, an old address i used to live at, the real last 4 digits of my SSN, and an incorrect birth day.

It apparently thinks it knows a couple things about me. It thinks it knows how much i make (almost correct.) It thinks i own a couple kinds of credit cards that i don't think i own. It thinks i've made exactly one purchase using those credit cards in the last two years. It thinks that purchase was an online purchase for $80. Notably it can't figure out my political party even though you can easily find my donation records to a prominent political party if you do a search using my real name.

But impressively it does seem to have realized i used a false birthday! It reports my birthday as actually being on an entirely different and equally wrong day.

So either this system is brain dead, or there's someone else out there with the same name as me, who's lived in the same place as i did a couple years ago, has the same last 4 SSN digits, but was born several weeks after i was and makes 99% of their purchases with cash.

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This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Re:I'm not falling for that! by ggraham412 · 2013-09-05 01:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

Thought I'd look at my own data, but when they started asking for the last 4 digits of my SSN I decided I didn't care so much about what they knew about me...
Phishing, anyone? I get the feeling that they don't actually have (or perhaps aren't sure of) my personal information like address, full name, DOB, or last 4 digits of SSN linked to my email address, and are using this as a gimmick to get goobers to add value to their proprietary data for free.
If they wanted to actually provide information to curious people securely, they could have provided a form that asked for a public email address only, and then emailed a report directly to that address. Surely they can look up your info based on an email address. Scumbags.
Re:I'm not falling for that! by ColdWetDog · 2013-09-05 06:17 · Score: 2

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When computers first attempt to perceive.

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!

Seriously? by spudnic · 2013-09-04 19:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

And in order to see the data they have about me, I have to give them my name, home address, last four digits of my SSN? Seriously? They're going to make a fortune off of this!

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load "linux",8,1

Re:Seriously? by Intropy · 2013-09-04 19:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Alright, here's what we know about you:
Name, physical address, email address, and last four digits of your ssn.
Gotcha!
Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-04 19:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yup, that surprised me as well. You serve ads to my browser, yet you can't identify me without me identifying myself? Fail.
Re:Seriously? by tlambert · 2013-09-04 19:24 · Score: 4, Informative

And in order to see the data they have about me, I have to give them my name, home address, last four digits of my SSN? Seriously? They're going to make a fortune off of this!
Why don't you want collection agencies being able to correlate your social with contact information so they can harass you? Especially collection agencies who buy old debt packages from people who don't keep very good billing records, like most doctors and dentists, and try to collect bills you've already paid because some idiot left a copy of one in the wrong old cardboard box somewhere?
It's pretty clear that you don't understand the important fact that, when they screw up, you're obligated to pay them again, and you are just a deadbeat.
Or maybe they intend to monetize stupidity, which has been a pretty standard trick for as long as there has been commerce...
Re:Seriously? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-09-04 19:27 · Score: 4, Informative

And in order to see the data they have about me, I have to give them my name, home address, last four digits of my SSN? Seriously?

That's about what the credit reporting agencies want from you in order to get your "free" yearly copy of your credit report. I always thought it was particularly convenient for them too.

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When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Re:Seriously? by CodeBuster · 2013-09-04 19:47 · Score: 4, Informative

And in order to see the data they have about me, I have to give them my name, home address, last four digits of my SSN? Seriously?
If you think that the data brokers like Lexis Nexis, Choicepoint and these guys don't already have all of that information and more, you're sadly misinformed. Would it shock to know that all of that information is readily available to just about any business owner or attorney for $50 or less and nothing more than a promise (by them to the data broker) that you said that you wanted to do business with them or are a client of theirs?
Re:Seriously? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · 2013-09-04 22:51 · Score: 2

You mistake my use of sarcasm quotes. Yes, the law mandates the report, but their lobbyists got to help write the law to make it ok to collect that information which has a dual use of updating your credit report. Since it is dual use, it ain't really free.

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When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Re:Seriously? by VortexCortex · 2013-09-05 00:54 · Score: 2

And you are +1 gullible
Incorrect. The word "gullible" is deprecated. It was removed from all dictionaries years ago. Look it up.
What you're thinking of is not "+1 gullible", but "doubleplus ungood thinking".
Re:Seriously? by Rob+the+Bold · 2013-09-05 01:06 · Score: 5, Funny

And you are +1 gullible
Incorrect. The word "gullible" is deprecated. It was removed from all dictionaries years ago. Look it up.
What you're thinking of is not "+1 gullible", but "doubleplus ungood thinking".
Never gets old. My sister pulled the old "you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary" trick on a roommate long ago. Unlike you, roommate couldn't spell the word, attempted to look it up, failed, and declared "Oh my God, you're right!"

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I am not a crackpot.
Re:Seriously? by Somebody+Is+Using+My · 2013-09-05 02:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

While data-brokers have my name, address, etc., what they DO NOT have is a 1-to-1 correlation between that data and my PC.
By using that tool, you are telling them that user Jon Doe can be definitively associated with IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, Network MAC: DE-AD-BE-EF, cookie RANDOM.TXT, email address:user@gullible.com and a specific browser footprint. Essentially, they can tie together all the data HUMANS use to identify one another with all the ways COMPUTERS on the internet identify each other. Without this, data-brokers can make some assumptions but providing the information on aboutthedata.com solidly confirms that connection
Just because they have some of the pieces is no reason to give them the rest.

Good job by awshidahak · 2013-09-04 19:08 · Score: 4, Informative

Great inclusion of the link to the service, samzenpus. I love how I didn't have to hunt for it at all.

Re:Good job by BitZtream · 2013-09-04 19:22 · Score: 2

Yea, nothing like clicking through ad-infested site after ad-infested site because the editors are too lazy to actually edit.
WTF is the point of people like samzenpus and timothy? We have voting for getting stories promoted to the front page already ...
I forgot, someone other than timothy has to be the one to post his stupid videos and dear diary entries to the front page.

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Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Re:Good job by fulldecent · 2013-09-05 00:49 · Score: 2

Sorry to break it to you, but many editors at Slashdot have been replaced with scripts over the years, short scripts. Timothy, on the other hand, is a real human, he works for Microsoft.

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-- I was raised on the command line, bitch

Pegged as a Windows user!? by EzInKy · 2013-09-04 19:08 · Score: 2

If so, then your Linux systems are working fine! Just think of all the stupid ads they would serve up if they thought you were actually intelligent!

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Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.

Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2013-09-04 19:27 · Score: 4, Funny

Sure, go ahead and put me down as a lying, thieving, wife-beating, intravenous drug-using, HIV positive tax-cheating atheist pervert, but DON'T call me a Windows user!
Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by clemdoc · 2013-09-04 20:01 · Score: 4, Interesting

What's your problem with atheism?
Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by rioki · 2013-09-04 20:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

What you say is funny.
At least for the programmer positions, if you have someone who uses Windows and Visual Studio you are all over the chart, but someone who uses GNU/Linux and vi or emacs you are without fail in the mid to high skill range. What it has to do with intelligence is beyond me. But you can infer interest in IT beyond the 9-5 assignments and few "dumb" people would do that...
Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2013-09-04 23:49 · Score: 2, Funny

Thou art a tool.
Let me assist thee.
Thy grammar is atrocious.
The mistake was thine.
*waits for -1, Informative score*

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Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by vettemph · 2013-09-05 00:09 · Score: 3, Funny

What's your problem with Pervert?

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The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.

Doesn't matter by Intropy · 2013-09-04 19:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

They're not _really_ trying to figure out data about who you are because they don't really care. What they care about are what ads are most likely to affect you. That's a clustering problem not an identification problem. And if those clusters happen to have similarities to a well-defined, named demographic category that just helps humans talk about them.

Re:Doesn't matter by NoKaOi · 2013-09-04 20:42 · Score: 2

They're not _really_ trying to figure out data about who you are because they don't really care. What they care about are what ads are most likely to affect you. That's a clustering problem not an identification problem. And if those clusters happen to have similarities to a well-defined, named demographic category that just helps humans talk about them.
What is the data broker's market? Advertisers (those who purchase ads), not necessarily the advertiser's customers. Their job isn't to sell the advertiser's product. Their job is to sell ad space to advertisers. So the data brokers marketing success doesn't have to come from actually knowing who their advertiser's potential customers are, they only need to convince their advertiser's that they do. If they happen to get it right sometimes then that's just gravy.
Re:Doesn't matter by raburton · 2013-09-05 00:11 · Score: 2

Every year when you fill the in electoral roll return there is a tick box for every person listed to choose to opt out of the version of the register that is sold. Despite what it says in the linked article it is very clear and the purpose is explained. While it does seem a bit crap that they might want to sell this in the first place it is very easy to opt out if you actually read the form. Any time you put your name to something and don't bother to read it and only get spam in return you should consider you got off lightly. I have to assume those who don't tick it don't mind spam and if that contributes a few pounds to the local council then great, they need all the extra income they can get (perhaps if they were allowed to charge more for the list they could afford to bring back weekly bin collections!).

Give me the link! by bkk_diesel · 2013-09-04 19:10 · Score: 5, Informative

I had to click through to a third page before getting a link to the relevant website.

The Acxiom site is found at https://aboutthedata.com/.

Privacy policy (FWIW) is here: https://aboutthedata.com/privacy/

And this is why by phantomfive · 2013-09-04 19:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

This is why Google launched Google+, so they could get all the info about you that Facebook got from you freely. It's also why they didn't care that is was a ghost-town after a few weeks, they got all the info they needed.

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."

Re:And this is why by N1AK · 2013-09-04 21:27 · Score: 2

If you don't think that Google can get a 95% accurate match to gender based on someone's email over a couple of years then that just highlights your lack of imagination or understanding of what people smarter than you can manage. Add in all the other accounts you'll link to Google, login to via google or use google for analytics etc. Frankly they don't really care whether you're a 'boy' or not, they care about whether you like 'football', 'fps games' and 'lady porn' and gender is just an outdated proxy they would have used to guestimate that in the past.

Hint: Unless you're intentionally trying to obfuscate then just checking whether you get any official emails starting with Mr/Mrs/Ms is all they need.

Easy by Alsee · 2013-09-04 19:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

What marketers know about me:
He's running AdBlock.

What marketers think they know:
Everyone wants to see relevant ads.
He's running AdBlock because he's annoyed that the ads he's been seeing aren't relevant enough.

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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.

Re:Easy by ruir · 2013-09-04 19:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

Think is the correct word. I don't see any adds at all. In sites like CNN I don't even think of opening video links. If I ever open a video link with ads, I close it. If I am *really* interested into seeing it, I take the time to search it into youtube or google instead of seeing it. If I don't find it, I suck it and don't see it.
Re:Easy by raburton · 2013-09-05 00:21 · Score: 3, Insightful

He's running AdBlock because he's annoyed that the ads he's been seeing aren't relevant enough.
That seems to be the point they're missing (deliberately I'm sure). I don't want to see ads, but I especially don't want to see relevant ads. I remember during the various stages of banning advertising of smoking in the UK they used to talk about not promoting smoking just brand awareness to get existing smokers to switch to them. This was of course rubbish, and the same is true for most advertising. They aren't trying to get you to buy a product you are already planning to, just from them instead of someone else, they are trying to get you to buy something you don't want or didn't realise you wanted (but were perfectly happy without). If I actually wanted something I would search for it myself, I'm not going to wait till an ad on my favourite website suggests it. So more relevant ads means finding a weakness in you they can exploit to sell you some crap you don't really want.

Nothing unusual by BitZtream · 2013-09-04 19:32 · Score: 2

Whats unusual about them asking you for your personal identifiable information for them to update their records, which then in turn they sell to advertiser, debit collectors and credit card companies?

Are you really so stupid as to think this isn't benefiting them in multiple ways? I don't give this information to any random person off the street, why the hell would I give it to the exact people I don't want to have it?

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Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager

Pitty the site appears to be US-only by jonwil · 2013-09-04 19:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

Might be interesting to see what this data mob has on me and how accurate it is...

From what they know about me... by Maxo-Texas · 2013-09-04 20:09 · Score: 4, Funny

I'm a male or female or a cat who makes between $21,000 and $250,000 dollars

I'm between 16 and 79.

I apparently like boobs.

I'm either unemployed, self employed or work for others as a manager or employee.

I may have good credit.

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She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.

Re:From what they know about me... by SalafranceUnderhill · 2013-09-04 23:07 · Score: 4, Funny

Hey, I'm a cat that likes boobs, too...
Wanna hook up?

Do you really want them to just ask for a name? by L.+J.+Beauregard · 2013-09-04 20:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

If they only asked for a name, anyone including your psycho ex-girlfriend could get this information.

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Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze

Marketers Nowadays think they know everything by adstopshop · 2013-09-04 20:15 · Score: 3, Interesting

Interesting article though. Nowadays, marketers think they know everything about everything but that's not true as this article proves it. I am a marketer as well and I realize that the more I read about the marketing as discipline, the more I realize I don't know almost anything about it.

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http://adstopshop.com - Free Classified Ads Listings Website http://gigs.adstopshop.com - Freelance Gigs/Jobs Website

Re:Scam by cas2000 · 2013-09-04 20:54 · Score: 2

and the errors are probably deliberate - maybe you'll get annoyed enough by them to correct the information.

Click here to see what they have on you by Taco+Cowboy · 2013-09-04 21:04 · Score: 5, Informative

TFA says:

"Data broker Acxiom did something a little unusual this week. It launched a service that lets you see the data they've collected on you"

Unfortunately that link got you to a page on www.citeworld.com which carries a link to www.nytimes.com

After a wild goose chase I finally got that link ---

https://aboutthedata.com/

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Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !

Re:Click here to see what they have on you by Laxori666 · 2013-09-05 03:55 · Score: 2

I must be doing great - I click on the site and get a "No data received" message!
Re:Click here to see what they have on you by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-05 07:12 · Score: 2, Insightful

I once entered my YouTube username into one of those sites that track YouTube stats. Since it had no data, it stated it would start tracking from now on.
Oh, great.

Great, another useless "field of study" by 50000BTU_barbecue · 2013-09-04 22:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

Could it be these "data miners" are just snake oil voodoo salesmen that are selling a comforting vision to companies? Has anyone ever done any double-blind studies to determine if companies that use this data actually benefit from it? Or is it just part of the modern cult of corporate "wisdom" that must never be questioned?

Or is one wrong data point in what is essentially demographic data irrelevant? Sort of like one athlete with an "obese" BMI doesn't invalidate the concept of BMI on the whole?

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Mostly random stuff.

Only a glimpse by rgrbrny · 2013-09-04 23:22 · Score: 5, Informative

So, I read the article that the article links to--spare me the "you must be new here jokes"--and found this interesting bit:

Although the site shows visitors a few facts that some might consider sensitive, like race and ethnicity, it initially omits, at least in the version I saw, intimate references — like “gambling,” “senior needs,” “smoker in the household” and “adult with wealthy parent” — that Acxiom markets to corporate clients but that might discomfit consumers if they knew they were for sale.

So Axciom's transparency portal isn't so transparent at all...

First, we don't RTFA by argStyopa · 2013-09-04 23:51 · Score: 2

At least the first 6 posts here said "OMG, they wanted all this information to show me my data!"...

Well, geniuses, considering that both Miller's article and the original NY Times article said "....Having filled out an identity verification form that asked for his name, birth date, address and the last four digits of his Social Security number..." personally, I wasn't terribly surprised that they asked for my name, birth date, address and the last four digits of my Social Security number.

Secondly, while I certainly agree that whatever you put into that form ends up going into their database as well, I'd like to pose a stupid question: how ELSE are they going to identify the person requesting the data? I mean, if all I had to put in was my name, then ANYONE could get the data they're about to show me, right? Personally, I strongly suspect that this is more to protect their assets from competitive gathering (after all, data is their business), but one could charitably interpret that this is a REASONABLE step to keep the information they have away from casually-prying eyes that are not the person indicated.

FWIW, it said my information was invalid, and I'd have to be manually identified (and this is all with absolutely correct entries). The second time I tried, it said there's already a user with that email. So, clearly a beta.

And a note to Ron: with a 5-minute scan of your "about Ron Miller" and a listing of articles, I can tell your probable politics - you're an Apple consumer, after all. FYI the fact that you *assert* you don't affiliate with a party also tells me volumes; it doesn't ipso facto mean that you don't in FACT align with a given party, either. And re your question, I guess I'd take the opposite view: while I know by correcting the information, I'm enhancing the value of their product, I'm going to get ads all the time anyway so I'd rather they be relevant.

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-Styopa

Opt Out of Interest-Based Advertising by Trax3001BBS · 2013-09-04 23:51 · Score: 2

http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/#completed give you the ablity to opt out of data collection but there's a catch,
you have to keep your cookies.

This site has changed since I last visited (years?), it used to have a large list of companies you could select to opt out from.
Now it just reads your cookies, 33 companies are listed that "honor" your opt-outs.

I use a rather large HOSTS file and delete my cookies when my browser closes, so this site does me little good.
my results: "These 0 member companies have enabled Online Behavioral Ads for this web browser."

Posted in case someone else can make use of it.

Re:What they know? Apparently nothing! by Stewie241 · 2013-09-05 01:25 · Score: 4, Funny

Nah. They have to ask verification questions. It's just like when Google called me the other day telling me my GMail account has been hacked into. In order for them to verify who I was, I had to give them my name, my address, two phone numbers, another email address, my mother's maiden name, the credit card number that was registered on my Play account and a list of all the addresses I had lived at in the last five years. I gave them that information so they would know it was really me and then they helped get my account sorted out.

Windows is for kids by dbitter1 · 2013-09-05 01:48 · Score: 2

Did anybody who RTFA read this WITHOUT the elipsis?

I haven't owned a Windows computer in a long time ... we are not interested in children's items.

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For us carnivores, "Sucking the marrow out of life" isn't a transcendentalist philosophy but a practical instruction.

Garbage in, garbage out by plopez · 2013-09-05 01:50 · Score: 4, Interesting

Once a data stream becomes polluted, it is almost impossible to clean up. False information continually circulates between sources and companies often reinfecting data that were scrubbed. All the users of "big data" and "analytics" do not seem to grasp that concept, blindly trusting what they find, a group of entities which includes security agencies.

This is why database engines which produce "eventual consistency", such as MongoDB, enrage me. They are almost guaranteeing a polluted data stream. Or maybe I just do not get it.

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putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+

Warning: Honeypot Posting by "samzenpus" by sgt_doom · 2013-09-05 05:09 · Score: 2

This is sooo very obvious it is almost not worthy of comment. Obviously a honeypot posting.

Furthermore, the point is most definitely how inaccurate their information may be, as they use it for employment screening, etc., and this particular company has long had congtracts with DHS, and the intel community.

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What Marketers Think They Know About You and What They Really Do

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