But—more importantly—we need to think about the ethics of our surveillance economy. Do we want companies knowing the intimate details of our lives, and being able to store that data forever? Do we truly believe that we have no rights to see the data that's collected about us, to correct data that's wrong, or to have data deleted that's personal or embarrassing?

OK, the data is there -- big big data. Lots and lots of it. The algorithms doing their jobs day in, day out. Yes, it is irritating if I look for a hotel in Seattle and then I see hotel suggestions in Seattle wherever I go. Is this the price we pay for saying "yes" to programs that we use.

Is anyone scared, or just pissed off.

someguyfromcanada:

I am not a super techie kinda person but I use uBlock always, change my IP addy often and go incognito when I search hotels, prices, etc. so I am largely unaware of what companies know about me.

But LinkedIn scares me and that is obviously just one example that has shown me what companies know about me. I have no idea how it knows I went to school with a person 20 years ago that I have never spoken to in as long and have no mutual contacts with. It also recently suggested I connect with a girl I dated for years that, again, I have no mutual contacts with and had not spoken to in 20 years. But that worked out well. We had a nice 3 hour lunch.


posted 3007 days ago