
Cracking the code - ashitvora
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_RAPLEAF_20101018.html
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mrcharles
It seems to me that some of what WSJ shows here goes against RapLeaf's privacy
policy.

Specifically: "We don't collect or work with sensitive data on children,
health or medical conditions, sexual preferences, financial account
information, or religious beliefs."

The WSJ article shows that they are collecting religious beliefs, income,
children, and detailed data on how you spend your money.

Seems to me that they are violating this both in spirit and in specific
wording.

~~~
jasonlotito
Your confusing interest with actual data. For example, they don't collect
religious beliefs. However, they can collect your interest in Christianity.
They don't collect health information, but they can collect your interest in
Healthy Eating. They don't collect financial account information, but they do
collect general financial information (for example, they don't collect CC
data, but do know your general pay grade.

Finally, they qualify everything by saying they don't collect sensitive data,
and from the information provided, they don't.

~~~
evgen
Spliting semantic hairs it seems... Rapleaf is not collecting "interest" data
just because they are curious; they are collecting it because the claim they
make to their customers is that you interests define you and your intents
better than explicitly stated preferences.

~~~
jasonlotito
That's the oddest way to agree with what I said I've ever seen. But at least
you agree.

------
jasonlotito
> The Wall Street Journal was able to decode 26 of them.

It's not like it's a secret or anything. They act like this chart is something
they've discovered.

~~~
nowarninglabel
It does seem to be counter to their mission of "Safe onlining"
<http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/2010/09/29/safe-onlining/>

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illamint
You can opt out and see what info RapLeaf has on you here:
<https://www.rapleaf.com/people>

I'm amazed, but not necessarily surprised, that they could pin down my income
level, location, age, etc. from just my email address.

~~~
conanite
I tried signing up, only to be told

    
    
      Could not complete registration: The captcha was not correct.
    

Only one problem: there was no captcha. Maybe adblock is working too hard ...

~~~
maukdaddy
I registered and verified, only to see this:

    
    
      Rapleaf Encountered a Problem.
    
      Whoops... we've encountered a small problem. Please try again soon!
    
      Sorry for the inconvenience.
    

Why do I feel like I've just been taken?

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nohat
At least RapLeaf is open enough to show this chart. You can edit your data,
and opt out. Far from a perfect system, but let's be practical: nearly every
other advertising system is doing exactly the same thing, just without telling
you what they have. Some sort of an open advertising cookie seems like a good
idea to me. Something that people can customise so that they'll see
advertisements somewhat interesting to them.

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danfitch
<http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/>

Some interesting blog entries by rapleaf.com

