
Time for third-party data brokers to emerge from the shadows? - worez
https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-third-party-data-brokers-to-emerge-from-the-shadows-94298
======
RcouF1uZ4gsC
The fundamental issue is that the average person in the United States and
Austrailia simply don't really care for their online privacy. Offer something
free and people will happily sign up and give all sorts of personal
information without any hesitation. Offer a loyalty card at a store with
discounts, and people will happily sign up for it.

Even after the Snowden revelations, not much really happened to the government
or the NSA. Even after the Experian breach, the credit rating agencies are
still making good money.

The underlying reason for this is that except for minorities, most people in
these countries never really experienced the downsides of this type of loss of
privacy. This is in contrast to Europe, especially Germany where people in
living memory experienced first hand how the government could use your private
information to literally cause you and/or your family to be imprisoned,
tortured, or even killed. Hence, there is a much greater appreciation for
privacy in Europe and especially Germany.

It is for these reasons that I am pessimistic that the United States and
Australia will really take privacy seriously at all in the near future.

~~~
lsiebert
People do care. They have very limited ability to make meaningful changes.

But you can look at the national do not call registry in the US, and it's
popularity to see that when there are options, people are happy to use them.

~~~
standyro
I respectfully disagree with you. Most people (in the US) do not care. I used
to work for an adtech company which engaged with all sorts of third party
vendors (like Axciom, BlueKai, etc) and every time I would explain my job to
most friends or strangers, people often rightly assumed that shady data
dealing is what was going on behind ads and services like Facebook and seemed
not to care. There has been little appetite to change this until recently, and
frankly only because of Donald Trump. No one seemed to mind the Equifax hack,
and no one wants to change their lifestyle or stop using services they enjoy
just to support privacy. Until a company like Google or Facebook gets
completely hacked and some truly incredibly embarrassing personal information
gets made public on a mass scale, I think that sentiment in the US will
continue.

~~~
hiram112
Most people in the US may not care, but that's because they simply do not
understand how it will (or already is) affect them.

The average person thinks that, at worst, they'll just see ads that are more
_intelligent_ or targeted. Who cares, right?

The do NOT realize that these troves of data are going to be used to someday
deny them health insurance, get them fired or not hired for some job, get
screwed in job pay and benefit negotiations (due to companys like Experian
selling you pay history to employers), be charged more than other consumers
for the same product (due to being able to pay more), getting denied for loans
or charged higher interest rates, not accepted to a school, refused entry in
establishments because you're not a 'good' customer, etc.

And that is just what big business will do.

Wait 'till big governments around the world see just how much power the
Chinese are able to exert over their populace playing the same data games.

~~~
fricat1ve
Perhaps Americans are just confident that if these things start happening
there will be ample opportunity to implement legislative fixes.

I mean c'mon...."Refused entry into establishments"? Unless the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 somehow gets repealed I don't see this as very likely.

~~~
pavlov
Legislative fixes would need to be implemented by the Congress — an
institution trusted by only about 25% of Americans [1]. So I don't think it's
fair to say that there is widespread confidence that this can be fixed with
legislation.

[1] [https://www.npr.org/2018/01/17/578422668/heres-just-how-
litt...](https://www.npr.org/2018/01/17/578422668/heres-just-how-little-
confidence-americans-have-in-political-institutions)

------
siruncledrew
I would like to see a network graph of the gathering and exchange of people's
information between these data brokers. It would simultaneously be really
interesting and really shocking. I can't imagine how many thousands of DBs out
there are with a smorgasbord of personal data.

~~~
nerdponx
Something like this existed for ad tech several years ago, showing which
companies were brokering/selling what. It was basically just an infographic
with company logos arranged on it, but it was still enlightening.

~~~
maxerickson
Maybe
[http://idlewords.com/2015/11/the_advertising_bubble.htm](http://idlewords.com/2015/11/the_advertising_bubble.htm)
?

------
HenryBemis
I don't meanto be a party-pooper, but what I fear that will ultimately happen
is "move slow and change as little as possible".

For FB to stop being the devil/cancer they are now, they have to drop all the
current practices and burn many bridges/income with any outsider, and make a
living with "just advertisments".

They will still make a good living from that, but greed is in human nature.

------
gregknicholson
The third-party brokers aren't the root problem. The problem is that Facebook
themselves have unfettered access to all of this data.

It's a lot of trust to place in one company, whose motives inevitably won't
align with your own, and who realistically you can't hold to account.

~~~
ghostcluster
Google has as much data collected if not more. Every search you've ever typed,
from where, and when. Every internet video you've watched and liked. When
you're awake, when you're asleep, etc.

~~~
gregknicholson
Indeed. I wasn't clever enough to avoid creating a Google account in the first
place (although I'm pretty sure it was just a “Gmail” account back then).

I switched away from Gmail and Google Calendar a couple of weeks ago. I also
disconnected my Google account from my phone. I haven't regularly used their
web search in years.

I've used an email address at my own domain for years, precisely so I wasn't
tied to Gmail, and therefore I haven't needed to spam my contacts or change a
load of user accounts to a new email address.

It's almost a shame Google+ never took off, because then the non-tech media
might be talking about Google in the same way as Facebook.

------
sbhn
my data, someone elses money

------
franzpeterstein
backup:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20180409214613/https://privacy.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20180409214613/https://privacy.org.au/2018/04/09/its-
time-for-third-party-data-brokers-to-emerge-from-the-shadows/)

~~~
timb07
Or, since it's reprinted with permission, here's the original article:
[https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-third-party-data-
br...](https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-third-party-data-brokers-to-
emerge-from-the-shadows-94298)

------
wjd2030
Yeah! Maybe we can model it after the big 3 consumer credit agencies! We can
centralize all ppls info in one easy to access place!

This new organization will be much more honest than the current ones!

IMO For this to happen correctly it has to be decentralized, perhaps
blockchain style.

~~~
laythea
..or, people can just wise up to what is happening to them. For me, the key
moment, was when Microsoft gave away Windows 10. I knew then, that I was the
product, however I suspect that most people would not chew on why.

~~~
shard972
For most people that was great. It was microsoft finially listening to people
who refused to pay so much for an OS.

I wonder how much it would take for people to wake up. Maybe if Microsoft came
out in full support of Donald Trump maybe then people would start writing and
caring about their privacy.

