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

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-don't-even-know-you-anymore dept.

mattydread23 writes "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. CITEworld writer Ron Miller checked it out, and found it to be mostly laughably inaccurate. Among the things they got wrong included his religion, his interests, and the number of kids he has. But worst? It pegged him as a Windows user."

34 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. I'm not falling for that! by Anonymous Coward · · 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...

    1. Re:I'm not falling for that! by icebike · · 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.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:I'm not falling for that! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · 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.

    3. Re:I'm not falling for that! by Zontar+The+Mindless · · 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.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:I'm not falling for that! by Oligonicella · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If any site asks you things of that nature, *always* deny. Screw the veracity of their stored data.

    5. Re:I'm not falling for that! by __aaltlg1547 · · 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.

    6. Re:I'm not falling for that! by geminidomino · · 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.

    7. Re:I'm not falling for that! by ggraham412 · · 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.

  2. Seriously? by spudnic · · 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!

    --
    load "linux",8,1
    1. Re:Seriously? by Intropy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Alright, here's what we know about you:

      Name, physical address, email address, and last four digits of your ssn.

      Gotcha!

    2. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    3. Re:Seriously? by tlambert · · 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...

    4. Re:Seriously? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · 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.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    5. Re:Seriously? by CodeBuster · · 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?

    6. Re:Seriously? by Rob+the+Bold · · 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!"

      --
      I am not a crackpot.
    7. Re:Seriously? by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · 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.

       

  3. Good job by awshidahak · · 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.

  4. Doesn't matter by Intropy · · 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.

  5. Give me the link! by bkk_diesel · · 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/

  6. Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · 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!

  7. And this is why by phantomfive · · 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.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  8. Easy by Alsee · · 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.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    1. Re:Easy by ruir · · 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.

  9. Pitty the site appears to be US-only by jonwil · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

  10. Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by clemdoc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's your problem with atheism?

  11. From what they know about me... by Maxo-Texas · · 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.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    1. Re:From what they know about me... by SalafranceUnderhill · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey, I'm a cat that likes boobs, too...

      Wanna hook up?

  12. Re:Pegged as a Windows user!? by rioki · · 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...

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

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

    --
    Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
    Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
  14. Click here to see what they have on you by Taco+Cowboy · · 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/

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  15. Great, another useless "field of study" by 50000BTU_barbecue · · 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?

    --
    Mostly random stuff.
  16. Only a glimpse by rgrbrny · · 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...

  17. Re:What they know? Apparently nothing! by Stewie241 · · 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.

  18. Garbage in, garbage out by plopez · · 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.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+