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14 votes
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What does big data look like when cross-referenced?
Google knows a lot about its users. Facebook knows a lot about its users. FitBit knows a lot about its users. And so on. But what happens when these companies all sell their data sets to one...
Google knows a lot about its users. Facebook knows a lot about its users. FitBit knows a lot about its users. And so on.
But what happens when these companies all sell their data sets to one another? It'd be pretty trivial to link even anonymized users from set to set by looking for specific features. If I went for a run, Google tracked my location, FitBit tracked my heart rate, and Facebook tracked my status about my new best mile time, for example. Thus, Google can narrow down who I am in the other sets using pre-existing information that coincides with theirs. With enough overlap they can figure out exactly who I am fairly easily. Furthermore, each additional layer of data makes this discovery process from new data sets even easier, as it gives more opportunities to confirm or rule out concurrent info. So then when, say, Credit Karma, Comcast, and Amazon's data enter the fray, my online identity stops looking like an individual egg in each different basket but a whole lot of eggs in all in one. And they can do this across millions/billions of users--not just me!
I don't know for certain that this is a thing that happens, but... I have to assume it definitely is happening, right? How could it not? With how valuable data is and how loose protections are, this seems like a logical and potentially very lucrative step.
Right now, is there an aggregate version of "me" that exists in a data store somewhere that is a more comprehensive and accurate picture than my own self-image? After all, my memory and perception are imperfect and biased, but data stores aren't.
6 votes -
Data Factories
6 votes -
No cash needed at this cafe. Students pay the tab with their personal data.
31 votes -
iPhone iOS passcode bypass hack exposes contacts, photos
8 votes -
China's Social Credit system: The first modern digital dictatorship
8 votes -
Introducing Firefox Monitor, helping people take control after a data breach
24 votes -
NCIX data breach - The WAN Show Sept 21, 2018
7 votes -
A life insurance company wants to track your fitness data
10 votes -
NCIX Data Breach - after bankruptcy, terabytes of unencrypted customer/company data have been sold to multiple buyers
20 votes -
How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data
11 votes -
A call for principle-based international agreements to govern law enforcement access to data
7 votes -
A year later, Equifax lost your data but faced little fallout
17 votes -
Who controls your data? Nine reporters in London, Paris, New York & San Francisco filed more than 150 requests for personal data to 30+ popular tech companies
8 votes -
Should Grindr users worry about what China will do with their data?
16 votes -
Google and Mastercard cut a secret ad deal to track retail sales
26 votes -
The tech industry is lobbying for federal data & privacy regulation that is friendly to the tech industry, but hostile to users' interests
11 votes -
Venmo's public API exposes millions of transactions, startling users
10 votes -
Verizon throttled fire department’s “unlimited” data during California wildfire
17 votes -
California wildfires: Verizon throttled data during crisis
24 votes -
The Data Detox Kit- An 8 day challenge to clean up your online data.
16 votes -
CCleaner provokes fury over Active Monitoring, user data collection
28 votes -
Facebook in talks with banks to add your financial information to Messenger
18 votes -
538 shares largest dataset of Russian troll tweets, compiled by two professors at Clemson University
17 votes -
The tragedy of the data commons
3 votes -
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project
7 votes -
On the future computer era modification of the American character and the role of the engineer, or, a little caution in the haste to number (1968)
7 votes -
What if people were paid for their data?
14 votes -
Tens of thousands of Australians who have given DNA samples to sites such as Ancestry.com could have their genetic data examined by police without their knowledge
12 votes -
Typeform data breach hits thousands of survey accounts
8 votes -
Facebook chats from planning session of Unite The Right 2 have been leaked
17 votes -
‘Everyone is breaking the law right now’: GDPR compliance efforts are falling short
19 votes -
Google update aims to show you how it uses your data
5 votes -
Joshua Schulte (of Vault 7 leaks) has been indicted for leaking CIA secrets
8 votes -
HART: Homeland Security’s massive new database will include face recognition, DNA, and peoples’ “non-obvious relationships”
23 votes -
Facebook gave data access to Chinese firm flagged by US Intelligence
9 votes -
Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends
11 votes -
Spotify is asking its users if they'd subscribe to a $30/month data-only plan with Spotify Premium included
13 votes -
Ad blocker Ghostery celebrates GDPR day by revealing hundreds of user email addresses
30 votes -
Two Canadian banks warn attackers may have stolen customer data
5 votes -
EU's General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect today. Rather than comply with it, some US news sites have chosen to simply block EU users.
10 votes -
GDPR quiz: How will data privacy law affect you?
6 votes -
Facebook suggests no compensation for European users affected by data breach
6 votes -
Parabola raises $2.2 million to bring the power of coding to non-technical people
3 votes -
Four ways your Google searches and social media affect your opportunities in life
4 votes -
People increased Facebook usage after Cambridge Analytica scandal
9 votes -
GDPR will pop the adtech bubble
9 votes -
The price of Google's new conveniences? Your data.
6 votes -
Cambridge Analytica: How did it turn clicks into votes?
5 votes -
I am a data factory (and so are you)
4 votes