This Company Has Built a Profile On Every American Adult (bloomberg.com)

Reader schwit1 writes: Every move you make. Every click you take. Every game you play. Every place you stay. They'll be watching you. IDI, a year-old company in the so-called data-fusion business, is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers. The Boca Raton, Fla., company's database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data. Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says the system isn't waiting for requests from clients -- it's already built a profile on every American adult, including young people who wouldn't be swept up in conventional databases, which only index transactions. 'We have data on that 21-year-old who's living at home with mom and dad,' he says.

Comments

Good luck

[bsharp8256]

Good luck finding me in my mom's basement!

Re:Good luck

[mulvane]

It's either her dead body, of the really feminine sounding boy dressed up and talking like her telling himself about how all the women are whores. 50/50, and most cops are smart enough to realize you aren't the dead mummified boy sitting in the rocking chair.

Re:Good luck

[Virtucon]

What part of "We have data on that 21-year-old who's living at home with mom and dad" was unclear? I don't think location in the house matters.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

your post just broadcast your location (IP address from Slashdot's logs we've hacked), employment status (none), what you read (nerd) and respond to and your age. We can get your name from your parents internet account and all about you from the public records of your birth, school, etc. Simple, easy and done! Criminal record? Done. Miss anything?

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck finding me in my mom's basement!

Hey Brandon Sharp, is that really you? how is your mercedess 220D doing? have you upgraded to the latest Ubuntu ?

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Dad?

Re:Good luck

[sconeu]

He's 22.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to include the opt out form.

Re:Good luck

[dbialac]

See headline, think to myself, "Hmm, I used to know people in this industry." Continue reading, "The Boca Raton, Fla., company's database..." Oh, shit. That's where I was when I knew them. Please don't be somebody I know. Please don't be somebody I know. "Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says". FUUUUCKKKKKK. Oddly, though, I don't know him from this industry but rather from a company in another industry that I worked with him at.

On a serious note, some insider information. First, yes, they do in fact know that much about you and yes the tools work incredibly well. I worked on the product that became the NSA's PRISM program (after I was no longer working on it). Believe it or not, it actually started out as a marketing tool to find potential leads. After 9/11, the company's owner Hank Asher realized that it would work well for tracking and researching people for the feds. The tool could query incredibly detailed information on anybody in the US with sub-second response times... in the year 2000. No off the shelf tools like hbase existed back then to do something like this.

About the only way to stay under the radar with this kind of stuff and not be homeless is to have a mailbox at someplace like the UPS Store, get paid under the table and pay cash for everything, and move around every 2 months without any written lease. After that, your new location gets fed into these systems. The time to stay at one place may actually be shorter these days.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you saying that received unregistered mail is recorded somehow?

As for banking/card records, they've always been available to the Feds, no?

I would have thought the best thing to do was to ensure the databases are flooded with lots of misleading data, rather than try to prevent them being flooded with accurate information. For example, run a script which irregularly scours the web for anything and nothing, focussing perhaps on particular things you have no interest in. If you regard yourself as liberal, make sure to "visit" Stormfront etc. regularly. Hell, post some angry rants that run completely contrary to your beliefs. Ask the KKK to send you information to your mailbox. But make sure to do the same for the American Commuinist party too.

Everyone who talks about NSA behavior seems to talk in terms of having too much to sort through.

Re:Good luck

[nospam007]

"Are you saying that received unregistered mail is recorded somehow?"

The postal office scans every piece of mail to send it at its destination. By 'scanning' they mean, they photograph each and every piece of mail (to ocr it) and they don't throw that away, it's too juicy for so many people.

Re:Good luck

[ragahast]

First, yes, they do in fact know that much about you and yes the tools work incredibly well.

I'm curious how this is supposed to work on vaguely careful people - who use NoScript, adblock, clear cookies regularly, aliases (recognizable to friends) on social media. No like buttons, etc.

I just went back to Panopticlick and I have to whitelist several scripts before my browser is identifiable. On most sites, those sources wont ever be allowed to run because only one or two first-party sources are needed for the page to function.

Of course, some companies are going to have data, say Google (because Gmail and Play) and Amazon (because payments and product ids), but why would they share that information with competitors like this startup?

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha!
Have you now....
ADD RECORD, NAME: bsharp8256, LOCATION: mom's basement!, LINK RECORD bsharp8256:MOM

Thanks for the data

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Your Browser is identifiable even if JavaScript is turned off.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they now.

Re:Good luck

[Razed By TV]

I'm no expert, but I suspect that if you aren't running a plugin to falsify your browser fingerprint (which makes browsing the web awful in itself), you are probably being tracked to some degree.

For instance, I find myself having to whitelist various content providers that serve across multiple websites (like CloudFront). If I assume that CloudFront fingerprints me, I will leave a trail on every site that I enable scripts on that pulls from CloudFront. Then, maybe CloudFront and some other CDN's put their data together and form a bigger map of where I've been. It might not be a complete map. However, I don't trust NoScript and RequestPolicy to prevent me from leaving any sort of trail (unless I simply don't run any scripts, ever).

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Hank's dead.

2) This shit was mostly working in 1995 as well. It was a custom built database (modified Faircom CTree code) running on top of 300+ Novell Netware servers in a shitty little business complex in pompano beach FL. At that point, the only users allowed were vetted by the ex cops/feds/insurance industry people Hank hired just for that purpose. But there was some sneaky shit going on that caused an uproar...

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

About 6 feet from the washing machine, to the left of the closet with the fabric softener in it.

Sincerely,
      IDI

P.S., that heap of old t-shirts under the ironing board is getting pretty ripe.

And when she goes to the store on Thursday, mom needs to stock up on dryer sheets. "Autum glade" flavor. And 3 Mega-sized bags of Cheezy Poofs.

Oh, and roach bait, you messy thing. The least you could do is sweep up the Cheezy Poof crumbs occasionally.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a question?

How do you sleep at night? How do you live with yourself?

Honestly , you helped in the development of a product whose intention was to further the grip of the rich, which later became a staple in massive government-sanctioned surveillance of every citizen.

At no point you can excuse yourself with the project having any good application.
If there is a hell you people will sit there, right next to your respective higher ups, probably wondering why you are even responsible for following orders/making a living.

Re:Good luck

[Tablizer]

Good luck finding me in my mom's basement!

They know where you are in the basement, who your mother is, who your father is (not who you think), how many pizza crumbs and pepperonis you left in the couch, how many times you wanked last week, what you were wearing while wanking, how many Linux distros you own, how many still won't boot, how many times you cried over losing D&D this year, how many times you told users to RTFM, how many times they actually did, why your last and only girlfriend is at Bellevue Psychiatric Ward, and that you are about to mod me down based on probabilistic models of both our past behaviors.

But cheer up, for they are giving you a 12% discount on your next Dell server purchase being there's a 38.7% probability that once you get familiar with Dell hardware, you'll buy more in the future. (Well, actually you'll get your mom to buy it for you, like you did your other 17 boxes.)

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

[quote]I'm no expert, but I suspect that if you aren't running a plugin to falsify your browser fingerprint (which makes browsing the web awful in itself), you are probably being tracked to some degree.[/quote]

I do and I do not notice a deterioration in my browsing. In fact, my browser fingerprint changes every two or three minute.

Re:Good luck

[dbialac]

1) Yep. TLO foreshadowed more than anyone anticipated.

2) The initial version of the technology used at Indar/eData/Seisint (we changed names a lot) was based on CTree (internally called Hozed), but by late 2000 it was an entirely different technology which fundamentally worked differently called Hole (pronounced holy). With the way Hole worked, we could actually scale infinitely and no that isn't an exaggeration. Oh, and we had fabulous names for our databases.

Re:Good luck

[dbialac]

The product I worked on (as I worked on it) was actually targeted at small businesses, not large ones. It allowed a small business to rapidly do very targeted advertising, saving money on sending mail or cold calling. Better put, it did more to help the little guy than every other product I've ever worked on. As for the evolution into PRISM, when I learned what this tech that I'd worked on was being used for, I was pretty upset, but that said, I had no way of knowing at the time it would be used for such a purpose and I had nothing to do with it being utilized in such a manner.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

ever hear of public wifi?

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

if it's so good, why didn't it flag the Orlando terrorist or the San Bernadino terrorists?

Does it know that I'm a nazi saying heil hitler in my mom's basement?

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

But those things, cold calling etc are pretty shitty too, basically degrading life slightly for everyone. That was his point, it was shitty stuff from the very beginning

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Now it does...

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

It's cooler to live in basement vs attic though if u live in Alaska maybe prefer to be less cool.

Re:Good luck

[rtb61]

So you know exactly what you do, you become an internet actor, 'it's not lying, it's creating many false profiles'. Basically poison their databases by creating abstract false information about yourself all over the internet. Run stuff like this http://www.cs.nyu.edu/trackmen.... It creates chaos in their databases. Computers are really great a tracking information and keeping records, they are even better at creating false information to flood relational databases with false connections that generate even more bad data. Rather than going nuts protecting your privacy, have fun creating a world of marketing illusion around yourself. Politically be a democrat/republican/libertarian/green independent. Simultaneously like and hate every imaginable product. Run multiple interconnected identities, with different background stories for each.

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

This is one of the things were incrementalism is actually beneficial.

If one cannot live completely on cash, the more cash only you can move toward the better

Throw in a couple nonprofit organization's that work for causes you believe in, and make you a gift part of stipulations you anonymously guide a portion of the gift, property etc, and a little more in the mix.

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Tod, is that you?
Wash off that ridiculous black moustache strip and come upstairs to take out the trash!

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

^^^^ was going to reply but you beat me to it. I have about 20 user agent strings I use and they change every 5 min.

Re: Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like a full time job.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

I know where your Mom lives. Say hello to her for me.

Re:Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

It was called Database Technologies (DBT) when I was closest to it.

There was a woman who worked there with a name very similar to Kathy Willets (call her Katy...). Willets was in the local news as a whore who had a Broward county sheriff's deputy for a pimp. Somehow Willets and Hank were connected. One of the DBT receptionists kept paging "Kathy Willets" by mistake when she meant to page Katy. There were many broken windows, doors, thermostats and cellphones over this until Hank really snapped and fired the receptionist. "The grapevine" says that receptionist got a 6 to 7 figure settlement for that "unjust" firing.

Re: Good luck

[Tablizer]

Just outsource it to the overseas guy who hacked you

So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

No? Oh, how is it any different?

Re:So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. But it's different because Google is much larger in scope, involved in more things, and thus more intrusive.

Re:So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because when you use Google's services, many of which are free in exchange for ads and data collection, it's Google that's collecting all this creepy info about you. Not some random company that you've never heard of that's selling your info without giving you anything in return.

Re:So it's Google then?

[NatasRevol]

How the fuck is there a difference?

Each is selling your personal info for money. How they collect it is minor at best.

Re:So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

There isn't a difference. This company no doubt bought the bulk of their data from Google.

Re:So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's FAR more intrusive. Best thing that could happen is this place gets instantly transported to deep space, employees and hardware inside, no spacesuits. It'd be a real public service.

Re:So it's Google then?

[lister king of smeg]

How the fuck is there a difference?

Each is selling your personal info for money. How they collect it is minor at best.

there is actually.
Google doesn't sell their data set. It is part of their secret sauce, they decide what ads you see and the companies advertising just give google the demographic they want to target. So only google knows that you have a fetish for short Asian women wearing hulk hands, so marvel pays google to show adds for avengers toys to people likely to buy them and never know about you or your weird interests. As opposed to this company that simply sells of that info to anybody willing to ask for it.

Re:So it's Google then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, Google probably has more information on me (albeit misinformation) than these clowns do. Wonder why they won't give a demo? It's because they're full of shit.

Re:So it's Google then?

[NatasRevol]

Your line is vague at best.

Other people still know what I'm like. And get paid for it.

Re:So it's Google then?

[lister king of smeg]

Your line is vague at best.

Other people still know what I'm like. And get paid for it.

no not really.
google is passing on ads to people the fit the desired critera of the agency placing the ad
this company selling your info giving this info to those companies.

your data never leaves google to the advertiser.

Re:So it's Google then?

[NatasRevol]

LOL at never.

cant be every adult

[93 Escort Wagon]

Unless they've got gps chips and fingerprint scanners built into each dollar bill.

Re:cant be every adult

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

It's worse than that. The government put chips in your head while you were sleeping.

Re:cant be every adult

[Anonymous Coward]

It was part of the vaccination program

Re:cant be every adult

[bws111]

Yeah, as usual this is just another hyped-up clickbait summary. When you read TFA, you find that what they actually claim to have is:

All KNOWN addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses (jeez, they know stuff they know)

Propery bought and sold, including mortgages (public records stuff)
Vehicles owned (public records)
Criminal record (public records)
Voter registration (public records)
Hunting permits (public records)

They also claim to have 'biilions of photographs from private companies with license plate scanners'. Kind of doubtful, companies don't give that info away for free, and why would they buy it if they don't need it.

Oh, and the 'every purchase' bullshit? Well, they own a couple of coupon companies, and IF you sign up for their coupons they ask for stuff like email and birthday, and IF you use those coupons when you buy something they know what you bought. No shit.

Re:cant be every adult

[amicusNYCL]

They also claim to have 'biilions of photographs from private companies with license plate scanners'. Kind of doubtful, companies don't give that info away for free, and why would they buy it if they don't need it.

They buy it because it helps their goals, whatever those are. It can't be that expensive, it's just manual labor and a little data processing. Someone with a multi-directional camera mounted on their vehicle just drives around and the camera records the location of every license plate it finds. We've seen those vehicles driving through our parking lot. It's not that they're reaching out to private businesses and asking them for their license plate data, they hire private contractors to drive around and get that data and send it to them.

Re:cant be every adult

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats why I have like three discount cards for grocery stores that have never been registered, work just fine to include fuel points even without registering.

Just make sure you pay cash.

Re:cant be every adult

[zlives]

actually sounds more like a marking hype for selling to VC's.

Re:cant be every adult

[zlives]

marketing (sp)

Re:cant be every adult

[reboot246]

The last time I searched for information about me, all I found was that I was a black female college student. I'm not. Lying is a survival tactic online. Do it.

My buying records won't yield much either since I buy online for a whole bunch of different people. I see ads for just about every product sold, so the end result is a wash. You'd have to target me with a shotgun.

Re: cant be every adult

[slazzy]

Bingo, you get the cookie.

Re:cant be every adult

[ultranova]

The government put chips in your head while you were sleeping.

Cool, free upgrade. Does this mean I can browse the Net with my thoughts? Connect to other drivers to figure out what they're going to do? Shared dream instances?

Re: cant be every adult

[undefinedreference]

Seriously. My record would be muddier than the Mississippi River after a major flood of the surrounding area. I have people that use my loyalty cards and I use theirs (family, close friends, girlfriend, her family, etc). Hell, so does my GF. We buy things for ourselves and others. Her dad was flagged for marketing for products he was helping me research.

Going even further, there is tons that makes me even harder to track - numerous VMs, years in other countries, and the lack of concentration of information (except with Google - it's hard to get away from them).

I'd love to know what most of these companies know about me, though...

Re:cant be every adult

[anti-disney]

A lot of records such as vehicles owned, voting records, hunting permits, etc are public records but not available for free. The state actually charges marketers for access to this information unless it isn't for some kind of emergency or law enforcement action. For example, a state will probably charge you a fee for vehicle registration information unless you are the manufacturer trying to obtain these records in order to contact owners about a recall on their vehicle. License plate reader information is valuable even if a state doesn't release the owners of plate numbers. A company could easily obtain this information from another database since there are some companies such as a business or government entity such as a public school that requires a plate number and other information in order to issue a parking permit to park in their parking lot(s) (such as a college). A business can sell this information to a marketer who also collects license plate scan information to personalize your habits. With plate reader information they can determine where you shop, if you are a college student, places you visit (most cities have cameras mounted throughout the city and this data is available for a small fee), any business you frequent such as bars and night clubs which may indicate your sexual preference if you frequent gay night clubs, etc. In fact, this information is so important that makers of license plate readers have argued that it is their First Amendment right to collect plate scans when states try to limit the use of plate scanners.

Re:cant be every adult

[yuriklastalov]

Mine came with extra Autism!

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this the future that JCR Licklidder and Doug Engelbart envisioned?

This is Slashdot!

[Anonymous Coward]

We don't read to the end of summaries here. What are you, a socialist?

Ad Blocker Irony?

[Swoopy]

Ironic. The link to the article begins by complaining about my use of an ad blocker in my browser. So what was newsworthy about that article again? Shameless linking of online behaviour and personality profile? You wonder how they got all that data.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Archangel Michael]

Actually, they don't need cookies anymore. Your Browser is unique enough that they can track that without needing cookies.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Xenolith0]

With noscript, their stupid javascript can't detect the blocking of their malware, and the article is readable.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[MooseTick]

"our Browser is unique enough that they can track that"

No its not. I analyzed billions of rows of logs across millions of computers, and at best you can fingerprint 1/3 of PCs as unique. But the next time they get a Windows update or update their browser that is out the Windows.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

With noscript, their stupid javascript can't detect the blocking of their malware, and the article is readable.

I know, I laughed at the deliciousness of their stupidity.

Their "pleeeeez don't use an adblocker" detector uses Javascript and blithely lets you in if Javascript is turned off. Brilliant.

Let's not tell them about NoScript, shall we?

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about their web programmer was required to show that anti-blocker notice and knew the testers require Javascript to test? So he made it so people who care about such things aren't bothered by it? Lets call that programmer great instead of stupid.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[zlives]

this goes completely against their marketing pitch to VC's, which enables them to sell their fool proof tracking database that they have created on every human being in less than one year!!!

so you MUST be wrong, ;) TGIF

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Archangel Michael]

http://akademie.dw.de/digitals...

You may be right.

https://www.theguardian.com/te...

Or not

http://www.pcworld.com/article...

or ... you can see for yourself

https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Archangel Michael]

FYI my score is "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 124,790 tested so far."

And that is pretty much by FONTS alone.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[gigne]

That's really helpful, thanks for the links!
I'm also slightly depressed after seeing my own results. I hadn't realised that hashes from webgl etc were used. There are some smart people. Devious but smart.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[Anonymous Coward]

BS. Every time I try one of those tests that claims to be able to track me, it never can.

Re:Ad Blocker Irony?

[anti-disney]

There are many ways to gather information. In addition to what others have posted there is WebRTC that can reveal details about your browser and other information such as your internal IP address. https://www.privacytools.io/we...

So is this enough finally?

[H3lldr0p]

To get some good privacy laws passed?

'Cause it really creeps me out that a coupon site is being used to confirm information. And aside from that aspect, which seems to be setup to prey on the poor and less fortunate, that the company

"...including young people who wouldnâ(TM)t be swept up in conventional databases...".

That says to me they're going after children under 18 and doing so on purpose.

Of course they'd not show an example to the reporter. That'd either expose some proprietary info or that they're full of shit. Either way, this thing should be shut down.

Re:So is this enough finally?

[DrXym]

Demand EU style data protection laws. Basically it requires individual consent and stops companies selling / aggregating data, or using data in ways contrary to the reasons someone consented to.

Re:So is this enough finally?

[fustakrakich]

To get some good privacy laws passed?

Name one without a lot of false positives and negatives you think will actually work. And you must take widespread sociopathy in the leadership into account. Happy hunting..

Re:So is this enough finally?

[Eponymous Coward]

It probably isn't enough. I think it's going to take somebody being able to show they've been harmed by the data collection and it will have to work it's way to the supreme court.

I wish the company had a way that I could get (or even purchase) a copy of the report on me. I can't think of any reason why they should object to that.

Re:So is this enough finally?

[Schmorgluck]

Directive 95/46 EC.

Re:So is this enough finally?

[anti-disney]

The only problem is the US government loves companies collecting this information since the NSA can scoop up this information. Surveilance hawks would simply argue that these privacy laws would destroy the ability of the intelligence community to stop terrorist attacks and most Americans would buy it and demand the government stop considering privacy laws.

Re:So is this enough finally?

[anti-disney]

Exactly and customers should have the right to opt-out and have all this data collected about them destroyed without having to pay a fee. For example I found a site (I believe it was Spokeo) who had all kinds of information about me including my unlisted phone number and my cell phone number that I refuse to give to nearly anyone. I wanted to have these records deleted but in order to do this I needed to sign up to their account and close this account. In order to close this account I would need to send photocopies of my drivers license and other information which I am not willing to do. They also admit that there is no guarantee that my information will be erased after I close my account and that information about me could reappear and I would have to again register with them and send them a photocopy of my drivers license or other identification in order to close my account.

Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

This behaviour should be illegal. It's like being stalked.

Time to get your congresscritters to enact a law banning this sort of crap.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, only the government can do this

Regards, the nsa, cia, fbi, hls

Re:Time for a law change America

[MightyMartian]

I have a different idea. I think Congress should pass a law saying such information always remains your property, and that every access of it for the purposes of making profit by any authorized entity must see you paid 50% of the gross revenue generated. Unauthorized access sees you paid 95%. Lack of payment by any company is regarded as theft, and will be prosecuted as a criminal offense.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

So you would prefer more people have access to any and all of your information than less?

Re:Time for a law change America

[KiloByte]

Unauthorized access sees you paid 95%.

Make that 5000% and we can start talking about there being some downsides to tracking (for the tracker).

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

I would prefer equal access to all information. Privacy seems to be in its twilight (for various reasons that are in and out of our control) and my greatest concern is the lopsided playing field we are on.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

Within the past few years, some former college football and basketball players sued the NCAA successfully. For over a decade, officially licensed college football and basketball games were produced by EA Sports. The games didn't include player names but the uniform numbers, positions, physical attributes, and player skills, which were clearly derived from the real athletes. No names or actual player photos were used, but the court still decided that everything else constituted an unauthorized use of the likeness of players, who had not licensed that use. Because EA Sports and the NCAA used that information for profit without license from the players, the court decided they were entitled to compensation. If this company is profiting by selling profiles of people they have built without a license from those people, it still seems to be an unauthorized use of a person's likeness. I'm not sure new legislation is required, just for someone to test this idea in court with existing laws.

Re:Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, 'cause then criminals whose info is used by the nightly news would be able to post bail without taking out a loan or hitting up their buddies.

Re:Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't help. EULAs & website privacy policies will just add boilerplate that use of their product/site implies you granting them a perpetual, royalty-free license to use your data. If you don't like the terms of that license, you're free to stop using the product/site.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

well i'm pretty sure you're alone in wanting your personal information to be readily available to the highest bidder.

Re: Time for a law change America

[fustakrakich]

Precisely, let's make it a two way street and you will get the proper response from the authorities.

Re:Time for a law change America

[ThatsNotPudding]

I have a different idea. I think Congress should pass a law saying such information always remains your property, and that every access of it for the purposes of making profit by any authorized entity must see you paid 50% of the gross revenue generated. Unauthorized access sees you paid 95%. Lack of payment by any company is regarded as theft, and will be prosecuted as a criminal offense.

America is so effed-up, this might actually work *if* you were recognized as a corporation.

Re:Time for a law change America

[MightyMartian]

That's why I say authorised use or personal information (via, say, you agreeing to an EULA) means you get a 50 cut.

Re:Time for a law change America

[eyepeepackets]

Governments are one of the big customers of these list vendors, doh.

Re:Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

I have yet a different idea.

We can't put the cat back into the bag technology-wise. It will become increasingly more trivial to collect this kind of data on anyone as years go on.

So let's not try.

Instead, let's just make everything open. No privacy. For anybody.

All CCTVs are now publically accessible. All medical records, call logs, and credit card transactions are now available to anyone.

Let culture adapt to a world no one has the privilege of keeping secrets anymore. Not you, not me, not the CEOs, billionaires, or even the President.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Khyber]

"Within the past few years, some former college football and basketball players sued the NCAA successfully."

They settled and there was no legal precedent established as there was no court or jury ruling. Feel free to try it in court, but you likely don't have the sort of case these players had, and you'll likely fuck up and lose.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

Otherwise, that 5% return on unauthorized accesses looks like 5% more than zero in some CEO's head, and they'll just go for it. Easier to beg for forgiveness and all...

Re:Time for a law change America

[liquid_schwartz]

Instead of "time for a law change" can we admit that the current setup is flawed and a reboot would be better than patching it? The sooner we can get the discussion going the better, because what we have now is past the expiration date.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the US. Companies dont get prosecuted for anything. On the off chance they do, they pay a fine of 1-10% of the profits they "earned" doing illegal and/or immoral shit AND skip out on the taxes for the rest.

TLDR: the system is broken.

Re: Time for a law change America

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure you will be happy with Daesh getting info from an open membership, political donations, or hell, a cafe's transaction logs during Ramadan, then posting a reward to kill you, stating your address, phone number, work address, vehicle's license plates, and the same info for your family members.

This is currently going on now. The reason why they can do this (which doesn't take more than skiddie knowledge) is because people and organizations are so shitty about privacy. A religious organization (even FSM or Jedi orgs) make their membership rolls open to the public, then wonders why some terrorist organization has a reward posted to kill all members, with a dox on every person in the list.

I prefer the info not present in the first place. Now that we have a fusion of the will (Daesh + the violent protest groups) combined with the way (criminal hacking organizations, no shits given about privacy, ever more intrusive databases and telemetry sucking by OS makers), after some people get hunted down and killed because of what they have out there on the Internet, people just might start giving a shit about these companies that have all data on them and their kids.

Of course, proles don't matter to politicians, but if a celeb or athlete gets kidnapped and whacked, we will actually start seeing privacy laws in the US... Or we might just see more shit like what the FCC did, where they passed rules banning all OSS software from Wi-Fi devices.

Stalking Is Illegal.

[zenlessyank]

If I put up a chart of someone's activities, they call me a stalker, but if a company does it, it is called smart business. 2 sets of rules. Greed is great. Fuck me moar.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google would seem to fall under the same categorization. But more so, and they are impossible for most people to avoid because they are on nearly every site on the web, often behind the scenes in ways that are not obvious to non-techies.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't be too sad if someone started stalking the CEO of these types of companies from a tall building with a scope.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Solandri]

No, this is an insidious loophole I first encountered while playing Everquest. The rules of conduct prohibited targeting an individual for harassment, punishable by banning. Unfortunately, this meant that some asshole who camped at a site (say a dungeon) constantly creating trains which got people killed was OK since he wasn't targeting a specific individual. But anyone trying to stop him from ruining everyone else's gameplay was banned by the GMs for targeting him specifically.

Likewise, if you're gathering information about a specific individual in RL, it's stalking. But if you're gathering information about everyone, you're just collecting data. What needs to be done is to pass a law which requires such personalized data collection to be anonymized, so that it can't specifically be tied back to an individual, like the Census does. But the advertising industry will never let that happen.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why you don't sit around masturbating at zone, noob.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It's totally legal to hire a PI and "stalk" someone. And legal to publish the results because the PI will gather the data legally. I find it very effective at getting people to leave me alone when they realize my budget is larger than theirs. Most people don't behave well enough to endure ongoing public scrutiny.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[UnderCoverPenguin]

It's totally legal to hire a PI and "stalk" someone.

Because PIs are licensed to do so. And they have to be otherwise uninvolved with the case. An unlicensed person or a PI who is determined to be personally involved is subject to prosecution for stalking.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[PJ6]

What needs to be done is to pass a law which requires such personalized data collection to be anonymized, so that it can't specifically be tied back to an individual

I think one of the major problems we face with tech these days is, it's surprisingly hard to truly anonymize any data unless you aggregate.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, this is an insidious loophole I first encountered while playing Everquest. The rules of conduct prohibited targeting an individual for harassment, punishable by banning. Unfortunately, this meant that some asshole who camped at a site (say a dungeon) constantly creating trains which got people killed was OK since he wasn't targeting a specific individual. But anyone trying to stop him from ruining everyone else's gameplay was banned by the GMs for targeting him specifically.

Not sure when you played, but on Solusek Ro you called a GM when you met an asshole and watched the action.

Re:Stalking Is Illegal.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's clear the above poster is a filthy Jew.

is it legal to monetize that profile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it legal to sell this information to anyone? Athletes license their image and likeness, receiving fees in return for the right to use them for monetization. Aside from public records, shouldn't I own the data about me, and thus be able to insist it not be sold without my consent? Shouldn't I legally own the rights to a profile about me?

Re:is it legal to monetize that profile?

[randomErr]

My question is: How do I license my image? That would make for some interesting lawsuits.

Re: is it legal to monetize that profile?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think you start by sending a cease and desist letter to anyone using it for profit without your permission. Then they can either stop using your image and likeness or compensate you for its use. I think it would be hard to collect from someone who's not making a profit from it, but this company is clearly profiting from selling something that's not really different from the image and likeness of people.

Re:is it legal to monetize that profile?

[Anonymous Coward]

They have claimed they've created a profile of you, and everyone else.

Seems to me they have made a very good opening shot for you (and everyone else) to sue them for using your likeness against your will. I suggest suing for potential damages.

Re:is it legal to monetize that profile?

[zlives]

not if it is publicly available information, in other words they have made a google wrapper.

SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

It's times like these that i love my european life the most.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[110010001000]

Why? You don't think there are data brokers in Europe??? Wow, so naive!

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

EU privacy laws hellloooooooo

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[rock_climbing_guy]

I really envy your European life where you can be hauled in to court and jailed for speaking critically of EU immigration policy.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

Mod parent troll.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[mschuyler]

The idea that EU privacy laws are never broken. Hellllooooooo!

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

Back up your assertions.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[rubycodez]

mod you as uninformed.

arrests of anti-immigration protesters and speakers is a real thiing

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[mschuyler]

You are naive if you think your companies comply with the law. It certainly would be a first.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

You have nothing. Thought so. Bye.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

In Europe, unlike America, companies do get in trouble publicly and financially if they ignore laws.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[amicusNYCL]

Why is it necessary for the EU to even have privacy laws? Are privacy laws the only laws that are never broken? Has no one ever been charged with violating one of those laws? What about laws against selling drugs, does the EU have those also? Are those ever broken?

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[liquid_schwartz]

I think Snowden did this already.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[lesincompetent]

U jelly american? Definitely yes!

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Or questioning the Holocaust narrative.

To learn who rules over you...

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupidCauseTheSubjectIsTFA

[rock_climbing_guy]

I think that there is a certain irony in the fact that it was reported that a man was hauled into court in DACHAU for his speech on Facebook.

Do we need more posts about Facebook?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nt

Um no

[110010001000]

Um no. They aren't the first. There are many. Acxiom is the biggest and has been doing it for over 50 years. This sounds like someone new looking to get some VC money.

Re:Um no

[fustakrakich]

This is the Year of the Unicorn... "Valuation" is king..

Re:Um no

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and I guarantee they are missing information and information is also incorrect. Good luck lining up the correct Robert Smith with everything known about the 1000s of them. When these slimy companies take data from many sources and combine information to try and put together something of more value, they get close, but they also miss the target a lot too. Like you said, they are not the first, by many decades and won't be the last unfortunately. Even though no business should have any business or legal rights to being able to do most of this. These jackasses exist because companies who shouldn't be allowed to sell information on us, do.

Re:Um no

[vortex2.71]

This is a publicly traded company, so no one is looking for VC.

Bright side

[Anonymous Coward]

"Asher died suddenly in 2013"

At least there was some good news in TFA.

Captcha: decency

sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[nimbius]

disclaimer: I am, technically, a marketing drone.
companies like this are also referred to as brand chasers or culture moguls, or brand identity teams. Every one of them touts the same crap, it just sounds like this one ran out of clients and is trying to court law enforcement that want to skirt the constitution.

is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers

bullshit. quantrics started this crap (technically socci too), then companies like Target, Ralphs, and Best Buy decided to bring it in house and make it proprietary, literally bankrupting them overnight.

The Boca Raton, Fla., company's database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data.

take a company, base it in boca or delaware, or branson, or somewhere mind-numbing data entry jobs pay nothing, and then spin it as a service that does (surprise) something that every modern corporation has been doing for 30 years. demographic and behavioral are so vague as to mean anything from "we had an elementary school focus group" to "we sit around and pay people to watch BET all day."

including young people who wouldn't be swept up in conventional databases

bingo, this is how you know its a bullshit target market research company. the blind spots of the 18-32 demographic are a gold mine businesses have been spending billions on for 25 years or longer. the truth is we really do not know why some of these audiences fail brand permanence, brand awareness, or our consumer confidence and profile metrics other than (gasp) they probably just arent interested in the product. but thats not good enough. middle manager mike needs you to buy the brand, and we need to pretend we have that solution.

'We have data on that 21-year-old who's living at home with mom and dad,'

yeah? so does everyone else. hes the fucking loss-leader and you work hard to exclude him from your brand experience. he has no pull with his parents (that ended at 17) and he has a caustic persona that can destroy the brand as any Axe bodyspray marketing team can attest to. You lump him into your 'subculture urban' market and bingo, youve just fucked an entire segment out of a product by appealing to something diametrically opposed to people with limited income. you can sell this guy credit cards and maybe some fast food...and thats about it. he downloads all his music, drives a 20 year old toyota, and plays freemium games on his iphone 4-5 waiting for his cheese to grill.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[110010001000]

This maybe possibly be the best post I have ever read on Slashdot.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

then companies like Target, Ralphs, and Best Buy decided to bring it in house and make it proprietary, literally bankrupting them overnight.

You aren't being genuine here. They brought their may have brought their analytics in house, but the data is collected by the likes of IRI and AC Neilson, and anyone can purchase this data. Source: Statistical Analytics programmer that uses said data

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[macs4all]

quantrics started this crap (technically socci too), then companies like Target, Ralphs, and Best Buy decided to bring it in house and make it proprietary, literally bankrupting them overnight.

Great! I hope this company soon follows suit.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

A classic SD post and the reason I still come here. Hoping to get one of these gems every once and awhile. They do not happen often. Enjoy it.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bravo.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[theskipper]

Is there anything in those databases (e.g. Acxiom) that can realistically be poisoned? And what would be worth poisoning these days, stuff that's possible to do and really does have an effect on their end-product quality?

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seconded. I have an MBA and I think I learned more from that post than any marketing class I ever took.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

This maybe possibly be the best post I have ever read on Slashdot. Agreed. +10

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

To this day it still baffles the hell out of me that brand engineering actually works on people.
I guess I'm just not anyone's target demographic.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Kirgin]

Can I make a suggestion? You should create a channel/blog where you apply this to modern advertising, explaining exactly what they are doing with this level cynicism and wit.. Think this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/A...

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shows what you know. It's a Honda.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[dyslexicbunny]

[quote]the truth is we really do not know why some of these audiences (18-32) fail brand permanence, brand awareness, or our consumer confidence and profile metrics other than (gasp) they probably just arent interested in the product.[/quote]

Looking at purchases where I'm a loyal customer (TP, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, paper towels, NB shoes), I got locked in as a kid. I've been using most those products since I was a kid that my parents bought. Deodorant was the only brand that could handle my sweating and NB shoes were crazy comfy. That's brand permanence for me. I figure if you want to win that demo, you win their parents when the kids are young.

Otherwise I buy what's at Costco or on sale. Price has always been my number one factor as I'm leaving that age range.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Always mistype your birthday, zip code, and phone number. That makes it harder to link the data to you if they don't have something more concrete in the transaction. My Facebook profile has an incorrect birthday and location, so anyone who knows me and looks at that profile thinks its a different me. For the people who don't know me well, I get an extra birthday each year. A friend could match education and job histories, but those are private by default and random sites never get that info so they can't match it to my profile.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[The-Ixian]

I go back and forth on this one.

I am affected the same as anyone else when I see the condensation on the outside of a glass of yummy looking liquid, my mouth waters. I am affected at a low level by most advertising. That is not bad, that is just being human.

However, I also couldn't really care less about name brands. I am interested in quality and usability and several other factors when making buying decisions. The only problem is that it is nearly impossible to do enough research ahead of time so it sometimes comes down to a "which packaging looks better" type of decision.

I also fall prey to impulse buying sometimes, especially when grocery shopping.

So, yeah, advertising is a huge and pervasive thing. I personally believe that everyone is affected by it to some degree. But I may be wrong.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

A Lexus is just a rebadged Toyota.
A Lincoln is just a Ford. Maybe it has more leather options, but otherwise it's the same damn thing.
Zero reason to get snooty about it--yet I've seen people scorn at a Ford and in the next breath praise a Lincoln.

Impulse shopping? Do you mean buying the overpriced, single-serve, mostly-junk crap right at the register in the grocery store? Or *anything at all* in a c-store?
I will admit to buying coffee--but have never bought anything else in a c-store, or stuff by the register.

White box vs retail computer components? Well, do you really want to keep and store a shiny empty box? Or rather have no reservations about throwing the white box away and just using the part w/o incurring any closet space usage... Oh, and save a few bucks too.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Their data is probably crap in the first place and useless for actually selling shit - data gathering is often a game of bilking the twits in marketing.

Re:sure, this and about a dozen other companies.

[Anonymous Coward]

bingo, this is how you know its a bullshit target market research company. the blind spots of the 18-32 demographic are a gold mine businesses have been spending billions on for 25 years or longer. the truth is we really do not know why some of these audiences fail brand permanence, brand awareness, or our consumer confidence and profile metrics other than (gasp) they probably just arent interested in the product. but thats not good enough. middle manager mike needs you to buy the brand, and we need to pretend we have that solution.

And I have very deliberately kept myself off of that radar. If your goal is to convince me, I can assure you, all those promotional campaigns are useless at best, and often counterproductive (unless your goal is to waste money and convince me to not buy). If I want your product or service, then I will go out of my way to find it.

Clean, simple packaging (plain background, product description, maybe a minimalistic rendering of the product). Any promotions should be quiet/non-obtrusive, low-profile (not appearing everywhere and following me around the Internet), and objective. Also, unless you're hawking drugs, I don't want to know about how good I will feel about your product. I also do not want you to tell me how popular your product is - I am not responsible for your market analysis, so I don't need to know.

A fine piece of news....

[Anonymous Coward]

"IDI, like much of the data-fusion industry, traces its lineage to Hank Asher, a former cocaine smuggler and self-taught programmer who began fusing sets of public data from state and federal governments in the early 1990s." ~snip~ "Asher’s disciples, including Dubner, left TLO and eventually teamed up with Michael Brauser, a former business partner of Asher’s, and billionaire health-care investor Phillip Frost. In May 2015, after a flurry of purchases and mergers, the group rebranded its database venture as IDI."

So in other words, our (and your children's) personal data is in the hands of cons, criminals and scam artists. Gee, what a comforting thought.

Re:A fine piece of news....

[macs4all]

So in other words, our (and your children's) personal data is in the hands of cons, criminals and scam artists. Gee, what a comforting thought.

And some of them don't even work for the Government!

Re:A fine piece of news....

[Anonymous Coward]

Gee, how clever. Think that one up all by yourself did you?

Ecouragement

[Anonymous Coward]

Good. Keep building those databases. Hoover up as much data as you can. Soon it won't be worth the disk drives you're storing it on.

I still get plenty of companies trying to sell me an extended warranty on a car I haven't owned in years.
I still get plenty of companies trying to sell me services for a job I haven't had in more than a decade.

It's cheap and easy to get data. It's hard and expensive to keep it clean. A few more years of this explosive growth in personal data availability and it will all turn to garbage.

Re:Ecouragement

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

It's even more fun to add noise to such databases by misspelling your name (oops, dyslexia or stuck keyboard -- or similar recent suggestions for the Australian census), getting a bunch of different customer loyalty cards and using them for weird purchase combinations, etc, etc.

Of course unless you're really careful about keeping things separated, it'll be possible (if hard) to statistically connect a lot of that stuff (same credit card used, or same IP and/or browser signature, etc). If you're really trying to hide yourself vs just adding noise to a db, you need to take extra precautions; one slip is all it takes.

Re:Ecouragement

[mschuyler]

Exactly. My wife has been dead over 20 years. She still gets daily mail for cruise trips, health insurance(!), beauty products, etc. sent to an address where she never lived. It's so fun getting the mail every day realizing she gets more mail than I do.

Re:Ecouragement

[Anonymous Coward]

That's super-sad. :(

Re:Ecouragement

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, this. It's even better if you pollute the data set on purpose. I often enter false information mixed with real information, to confuse the bots. Tweaking middle names and using false first names for things like magazines is hilarious. e.g. all magazines come to my cat. When I apply for credit in the name of my cat they never send the card, but they don't stop sending the free offers. They don't mind paying the return postage, and I like spending their money. Sometimes I tape it to a brick. That often stops them. Prepaid postage on bricks is expensive. haha

Re:Ecouragement

[guruevi]

But those companies paid/pay for your information even though it's crap and they will continue doing so as it works for ~1% of the population they send it to. So these types of companies will continue selling them crap information and stay in business and you'll continue receiving spam, just in case you react to one of them.

Re:Ecouragement

[radarskiy]

The downside of poisoning the data is that these databases are used for verifying your identity. Have you ever get hit with a series of questions like "Which of these four address have you lived at in the last 10 years?" That's an instance of this verification technique. But there doesn't seem to be any verification, since I have gotten questions where there is no correct choice.

My fear is not about good data getting out but so much bad data getting in so that I can no longer prove who I am.

Back off and Nuke Them From Orbit

[macs4all]

It's the only way to be sure.

What Stops Us From Suing? ...All of us, I mean?

[Karl Cocknozzle]

I don't recall signing an authorization for my data to be used this way. Nor did I engage in informed consent with any of the vendors that have disclosed this information to this third party--how about we just figure out who is selling them data and sue a few of them into bankruptcy? It'll scare away other potential sellers and take this predatory organization down.

Re:What Stops Us From Suing? ...All of us, I mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

Data about you does not belong to you. Nobody needs your permission to use it. I'm sure you'll find a lawyer happy to take your money and loose a lawsuit though.

Re:What Stops Us From Suing? ...All of us, I mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably did when you signed up for your credit card and when you opened your google account (in case you have one).

Re:What Stops Us From Suing? ...All of us, I mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't recall signing an authorization for my data to be used this way. Nor did I engage in informed consent with any of the vendors that have disclosed this information to this third party--how about we just figure out who is selling them data and sue a few of them into bankruptcy? It'll scare away other potential sellers and take this predatory organization down.

You almost certainly did not read the fine print for any of those services.

Re:What Stops Us From Suing? ...All of us, I mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't recall signing an authorization for my data to be used this way. Nor did I engage in informed consent with any of the vendors that have disclosed this information to this third party--how about we just figure out who is selling them data and sue a few of them into bankruptcy? It'll scare away other potential sellers and take this predatory organization down.

Actually you did. You just forgot. Do you have a phone? Then you did. Do you have a credit card? Then you did. Have you ever signed up for any service of any kind whatsoever? Then you did.

Get over yourself. You've got about 5000 companies that know your name and the last 20 addresses where you lived, your phone number(s), e-mail addresses...

And by and large, if you are even remotely resistant to advertising, that information is almost completely worthless.

Take an address I lived at 10 years ago. THE FUCK good is that to ANYONE? Seriously? What the fuck do you think it'll gain you to know I lived in a suburb of Boise, Idaho? (J/K, I never lived in Idaho, in fact, I don't recall as I've ever set foot in the state,) but whether I have or not can't possibly be of value, any more than that I've HEARD of Boise. This basically goes the same as every previous address. Suppose you know I lived at some place, you could use that to try to sell me stuff relevant to that place... only since I don't live there anymore, any businesses mailpieces that reach me go straight into the SHREDDER, so...

Waste of effort, waste of paper, I surf with adblockers, I throw all the SPAM (or snail-mail equivalent) straight into the trash without even looking at it, (I assume it's recycled,) and I LAUGH whenever anyone presumes to claim to have a "MASSIVE" database of information on me.

They don't. They might have a few pieces of obsolete information on me, and any they have that are current are worthless, as I don't read junkmail, I use SPAM filters on e-mail, I don't answer calls from unknown numbers..., I have many e-mail addresses that do not contain any part or permutation of my actual, real name, my outgoing voicemail message is the generic one....

I have worked reasonably hard to make my personal information basically worthless.

Ta'.

~ John Q. Public

So... stalking is okay

[qeveren]

Provided you're making (enough) money off of it. :D

Solution

[BenBoy]

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. ... Itâ(TM)s the only way to be sure" -- from the seminal text on destroying monsters ...

Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

"Dubner declined to provide a demo of idiCORE or furnish the company’s report on me. "

And that's where I call BULLSHIT. If they aren't willing to demo it to show that it works...then it most likely doesn't work they way they claim.

Re:Bullshit

[mark-t]

Indeed. Even if it were true, they clearly don't care whether or not people believe them, and so I don't understand why they would bother saying anything about it in the first place.

Corporate ticker history

[Anonymous Coward]

The "IDI" shell was earlier "Ideation Acquisition Corp" (2007, as IDI.U), which saw a large amount of money disappear in a 2009/2010, when it purchased SearchMedia holdings. It was renamed to "Tiger Media" shortly after (IDI.WS) "[being] notified that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Los Angeles Regional Office, was conducting a formal investigation". In 2014 "Tiger Media" bought the "The Best One", then in 2015 renamed itself to "IDI Inc" as part of the reverse merger, and disclosed that the existing "Tiger Media" business was worthless.

He's 22

[number6x]

At least that what his DOB on our database says...

mpaa

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like the MPAA and their mafia cronies. This information will be used against you.

When did spying on US citizens become OK?

[Anonymous Coward]

This used to be the kind of thing we mocked communist countries for doing.

But now it's okay because "for capitalism" ?

Yep they're profiting from it

[Anonymous Coward]

"Besides pitching its databases to big-name PIs (Kroll, Control Risks), law firms, debt collectors, and government agencies, IDI says it’s also targeting consumer marketers. The 200-employee company had revenue of about $40 million in its most recent quarter and says 2,800 users signed up for idiCORE in the first month after its May release. It declined to provide more recent figures. The company’s data sets are growing, too. In December, Frost helped underwrite IDI’s $100 million acquisition of marketing profiler Fluent, which says it has 120 million profiles of U.S. consumers. In June, IDI bought ad platform Q Interactive for a reported $21 million in stock."

Class action anyone?

And you worry about Big Bad Government

[AutodidactLabrat]

Big Bad Government won't prevent you from going to the school of your choice.
Or buying a first home
Or getting a car loan
or asking for a raise
But these people will, if there is enough profit in offering a dataset that maximizes someone else's profit at your expense.

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[epyT-R]

bigbadgovernment is just the logical conclusion to all of that. The ultimate monopoly.

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[Anonymous Coward]

At least there are elections for bigbadgovernment. When could you ever elect the executive of your local monopoly?

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[epyT-R]

1. I could choose not to buy.
2. I could choose to buy.
3. Others could go into business and compete with him, assuming no government interference.

In contrast a government monopoly:

1. forces me to fund whether I want/like the service or not. In this case, it's likely happening as bigbadgovernment is likely this company's primary target customer.
2. Can make it expensive to compete, or even lock out competition altogether using law.
3. can threaten me with jail for noncompliance.

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[AutodidactLabrat]

1. No you can't if you cannot replace the object and require it to function in your business.
2. You will only buy with cash and where will you get that when you can't work thanks to your politics load?
3. No one is going into competition. They either are a smoke screen, a wholly owned subsidiary, or they will be bought. That's how American monopolism works.
How many Microsofts are there? None
In contrast
You can join millions of others and replace the party which is coercing you. Might have to do it several times so you get the SCOTUS you want, but it always works.
2. Corporations do that now, and Patent, Copyright and Trademark is how
3. Corporations ALREADY use the mentioned tools to put people in jail for not paying what the Monopoly demands

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[epyT-R]

1. Then your own prices go up accordingly. If the prices for this widget spike enough times, someone else will enter the market eventually.. unless of course government steps in to maintain the monopoly.
2. Politics load?
3. If they're bought out, then that means the owners (or investors) felt they weren't good enough to compete long term. Unless of course the incumbent was shielded by government....

2. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are enforced by governments. I don't want to abolish them but I do think they've been rampantly abused, again, because governments allow it. If government involvement was rolled back, these corporates would have to spend their own money to maintain their monopolies (ie compete) instead of government spending taxpayer dollars that haven't been earned yet on their behalf.
3. That's true, but again, that's still up to government to do so.

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[Anonymous Coward]

1. I could choose not to buy.
2. I could choose to buy.
3. Others could go into business and compete with him, assuming no government interference.

In contrast a government monopoly:

1. forces me to fund whether I want/like the service or not. In this case, it's likely happening as bigbadgovernment is likely this company's primary target customer.
2. Can make it expensive to compete, or even lock out competition altogether using law.
3. can threaten me with jail for noncompliance.

You do realise that ultimately, a government is answerable to its people while a corporation is answerable only to its shareholders/owners. A large corporation can make it extremely hard for a upstart company to get a foot hold in a market, hell, just look at what things are like now with regulations holding back the large corporations. Without "government interference", large corporations can use a variety of techniques like dumping (how can you stay in business if someone else is selling a competing product for less then your manufacturing costs? they can use profits from other sectors to keep their bottom line up), coercion (want to stock our products at this price? well, best not be giving any business to company X then - both Intel and MS have been found guilty of this even with regulations against it), or even just plain old violence (huh, we didn't pay those hoodlums to smash up your place of business).
Take, for example, the East India company, it was so big and powerful that it pretty much controlled India. It took a rebellion, a change in government and a law passed by the UK to remove it's hold. Another broader example would be the company towns in the USA that would basically make slaves out of their workers. Those company towns and the abuses took unionisation and government action to break.
As for governments abusing their citizens, theres countless revolutions through history of governments answering for their behaviour (Russia, Cuba, France, USA, Syria, Turkey, etc)...

TL;DR; Big corporations are worse then big governments as big governments are ultimately answerable to the people while a corporation is not....

Re:And you worry about Big Bad Government

[AutodidactLabrat]

Nope. Monopolies like Comcast prove you wrong
Yes, politics load, the burden on your employability index based on your political awareness and activisim (see Henry Ford 1931 for prior examples).
No, they buy you out whenever they can corner the market and drive your market share to the sell-below-investment-lost price.
Patents, trademarks and copyrights are enforced by Capitalists. That's why they sue you instead of just sending the FBI after you
if government were "rolled back" the corporations would buy their own courts, win every dime every time they complained, and have an assassin squad instead of a police force.
No, it is up to the Corporate entity to cite, prosecute and beggar the defense the more easily to get convictions.

Standby for news this company's database hacked...

[k6mfw]

in 3, 2, 1...

not that anyone will notice as we are all "alarm fatigued" of hacked databases.

Stalking threats

[Anonymous Coward]

Please! Do not allow your anger to get you to physically threaten anyone online!
( rifle with scope...) This can lead to interrogations, prosecution, and imprisonment!
Apply for a job there, in the name of a good friend who does stuff, and set program bombs...
quit and leave...
We used to do those things....

How many are me?

[jxander]

I wonder how many profiles they've generated for me?

I have several email addresses that I keep segregated. One I use for junk email, my local sport teams' message boards, this site, etc. I have a second account that I use for buying things online (Steam, Amazon, Netflix, etc.) And a third address strictly for personal emails.

It's entirely feasible that all 3 have been picked up by this company, and treated as 3 completely unique people with the same name.

Re:How many are me?

[frieza79]

Thanks for the info!
-idiCORE

Class-action lawsuit with 300M plaintiffs

[kheldan]

That's what I propose. Terms of the settlement: Complete and total destruction of the entire database and all backups, followed by public execution by guillotine of the management staff of the company.

the last word in big data

[Anonymous Coward]

so... the Idi Amen?

They'll Never Profile Me Accurately

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I unpredictably (and inconsistently) buy things I hate, watch things I find boring, and behave in the opposite way that I'm inclined to.

Unless ... that's ... their ... profile ... of me.

Awwww, shit!

Re:They'll Never Profile Me Accurately

[Anonymous Coward]

Reverse your morality
Listen to bands
That play only music
You can't stand

Forget how to worry
Enjoy your fears
Stop your life insurance
Disappear!

Don't believe anyone
Don't read your mail
Make light of every word you hear
Turn off your radio
Quit your job

Do something different - disappear!

winner winner... um no

[gosand]

The only people who would win in this scenario is lawyers. Our entire system is built by lawyers, for lawyers. In general, the answer is not "more laws".

Marvelous

[Anonymous Coward]

*whisper*Hail hydra

I don't bitch: I do something about it... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?...

Ads rob speed, security (malvertising), privacy (tracking).

Hosts add speed (hardcodes/adblocks), security (bad sites/poisoned dns), reliability (dns down), & anonymity (dns requestlogs/trackers) natively.

Works vs. caps & PUSH ads.

Avg. page = big as Doom http://www.theregister.co.uk/2... & ads = 40% of it.

Hosts != ClarityRay blockable (vs. souled-out to admen inferior wasteful redundant slow usermode addons)

Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus (slows you) + less security issues/complexity.

Compliments firewalls (blocking less used IP addys vs. hosts blocking more used domains) & DNS (lightens dns load).

Gets data via 10 security sites.

APK

P.S. - Safe https://www.virustotal.com/en/... (Verified by Malwarebytes' S. Burn "seen the code & it's safe" http://forum.hosts-file.net/vi... )

Re:I don't bitch: I do something about it... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

You are pathetic.

idiCORE public website

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone from outside the US is able to (without VPN etc) access their public website?

marketing hype

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure Facebook and Google have far more information than some scammer Florida people.

Creepy

[fluffernutter]

Do people wake up one day and set out to start the creepiest company they possibly can? Seriously, I haven't started a porn site because of the ick factor but now I think I might because this gives me someone that will sill make me feel good about myself.

yeah, but do they Hillary's emails?

[swschrad]

or Trump's tax records?

if not, they're not worth beans.

Not totally complete

[Anonymous Coward]

If they want to keep track of my porn viewing habits, they're gonna need a bigger database!

The first...?

[cayenne8]

I'm pretty sure Acxiom did this LOOOOONG ago before this company did.

Hell, back in the mid 90's I was helping on a project there to come up with a unique identifier and to build records upon that for every individual worldwide....

Way back when, they used to cut binders of phone books and scan them in for databases.

They get all the US Postal records, all states that publish/sell drivers license info...

They got info from all those little sheets you fill out when you send in a warranty card....etc.

They work with and clean up TransUnion and the other credit companies...and the credit card companies...etc.

Hell, the US Federal govt uses Acxiom to clean their databases for them, they did after 9/11 and I can guess they still are...

Re:The first...?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure Acxiom did this LOOOOONG ago before this company did.

Yeah well, the company above didn't pay kickbacks and 'fees' to advertising companies like the one that owns slashdot to push their crappy stealth advertising on people.

If ever there was a company that needed hacked, cracked and whacked, it is this collection of arrogant assholes. Get it done.

Re: The first...?

[Anonymous Coward]

We are not your personal army. Learn and do it yourself.

Re:The first...?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does your comment have to do with the one you're replying to?

If you're mildly retarded, my sincere condolences. But it seems more likely you just posted near the top to get views for your comment.

Re: The first...?

[Anonymous Coward]

We are not your personal army. Learn and do it yourself.

Admit it, you can't do jack, but jack. So your statement from the Skiddies Table is just a reflection of you having no abilities. Found the Null Pokemon.

Re:The first...?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does your comment have to do with the one you're replying to?

If you're mildly retarded, my sincere condolences. But it seems more likely you just posted near the top to get views for your comment.

Projecting your mental deficiencies on others is quite sad, you inconsiderate klutz. But it seems more likely you just posted near the top to get views for your comment.

Re:Standby for news this company's database hacked

[Tablizer]

As long as it's usually "the other guy" who's a victim of leaks, not enough will care to bring about change.

But one of these days, enough people will be publicly humiliated that politicians will be forced to take action (and probably ham-handed action, based on their past).

Query?

[sims 2]

Is this something that I can query to see what my current address is for $5 or so or do they only deal with multi million dollar deals?

Noooo... BurEAU HD is FBI, so is this guy I think

[Anonymous Coward]

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/08/05/2154216/1000-us-spies-are-protecting-rio-olympics-says-report

They are like trying to throw you off. Pretending "somebody else" is tracking you.

I don't believe it.

And when this data is comprimised, then what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a matter of time before this data gets in the wrong hands. Then what?

Holy Crap!

[Anonymous Coward]

Crap.... I swear not everyone in Boca is a douche! I drive by their building all the time. It's very bland -- I had no idea a company like that was there. One time Boca was a technology hotspot. The original PC architecture (for better or worse) was designed here. Siemens build PBXes here. WDM took root here. Seems like that's all gone and Boca just gets a bad name.

Anonymous

[DaMattster]

Looks like I'll have to wait for Anonymous to bring this service to its knees.

Actually "your kind" is.. apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: I don't sit around bitching about things like this - I created something to help stop it & other threats https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

APK

P.S.=> Why doesn't "your kind" do the same instead of going "waaaaaahhhh" crying about it? Oh! That's right... you don't have the ability OR the intestinal fortitude (or balls) to do so! apk

They should be required to pay people

[anti-disney]

If they are making money by collecting this information and refuse to allow people to opt-out of having information collected about them, they should also be required to pay you for the information you involuntarily give to them. After all, you cannot opt-out and since this is your information, you should be compensated when someone collects this information for marketing purposes.

Fiction becomes fact

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone interested in this sort of item should read "Broken Window" by Jeffery Deaver - only fiction but it makes one think...