https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/11/data-brokers-staggering-sale-of-sensitive-info-exposed-in-unsealed-ftc-filing/
Judge: Data broker’s motion to sanction FTC “long on hyperbole, short on facts.”
No place to hide:
Further, the FTC alleged that there are no real ways for consumers to opt out of Kochava's data marketplace, because even resetting their mobile advertising IDs—the data point that's allegedly most commonly used to identify users in its database—won't stop Kochava customers from using its products to determine "other points to connect to and securely solve for identity.”
Stupendium's The Data Stream is more applicable every day.
Name, age, qualifications
Race, faith, career aspirations
Political leaning, daily commute
Marital status, favourite fruit
Family, browser, medical history
Hobbies, interests, brand affinity
Fashion, style, your occupation
Gender identity, orientation
Lifestyle choices, dietary needs
The marketing contact you choose to receive
Posts, likes, employers, friends
Social bias, exploitable trends
Tastes, culture, phone of choice
Facial structure, the tone of your voice
If it’s inside your head, we know
You can’t escape the ebb and flow
In a similar vein: check out their "The Fine Print", which tackles corporate overreach through the game "The Outer Worlds".
There's no "I" in team, but there's "con" in economy
We put the dollar back into idolatry
This is the best summary I could come up with:
US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill recently unsealed a court filing, an amended complaint that perhaps contains the most evidence yet gathered by the FTC in its long-standing mission to crack down on data brokers allegedly "substantially" harming consumers by invading their privacy.
According to the FTC, Kochava's customers, ostensibly advertisers, can access this data to trace individuals' movements—including to sensitive locations like hospitals, temporary shelters, and places of worship, with a promised accuracy within "a few meters"—over a day, a week, a month, or a year.
Beyond that, the FTC alleged that Kochava also makes it easy for advertisers to target customers by categories that are "often based on specific sensitive and personal characteristics or attributes identified from its massive collection of data about individual consumers."
These "audience segments" allegedly allow advertisers to conduct invasive targeting by grouping people not just by common data points like age or gender, but by "places they have visited," political associations, or even their current circumstances, like whether they're expectant parents.
Instead, Kochava "actively promotes its data as a means to evade consumers’ privacy choices," the FTC alleged.
Further, the FTC alleged that there are no real ways for consumers to opt out of Kochava's data marketplace, because even resetting their mobile advertising IDs—the data point that's allegedly most commonly used to identify users in its database—won't stop Kochava customers from using its products to determine "other points to connect to and securely solve for identity.”
The original article contains 662 words, the summary contains 243 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I really must voice that while yes I am concerned with all the data collection, it must be pretty weak sauce as I rarely see an advertisement that actually resonates with me. It is like they have no idea who I am which I find some utterly baffling given all the data they have. Something is missing in the story. I half suspect the data is not accurate and not of high integrity. Still a concern for sure.
Google has no idea what I am, or what I want. I get into so many random internet debates, that the last time I checked it thought I was the wrong gender, living in a different state, with a completely off the mark profession, and only a handful of the hobbies it though I had were relevant. And those were vague things like “outdoors” or “sports.”
You can certainly mask yourself quite proficiently, but that isn’t the norm. Most people are extremely easy to pin down.