Some internet stuff worth knowing

[RioLindoAz]

Kind of creepy, huh? I hope and pray BYC doesn't become this way.


~Rio

 

[turney31]

Very interesting!

 

[Camelot Farms]

Great. Now hubby will be putting the tin foil back on the windows...

Seriously...good info! Thanks.

 

[welsummerchicks]

So? This is not new.

People don't seem to realize that even before facebook and google, even well before the internet, the same sort of thing was done through credit card information.

And before that, if you ever filled out a little card at a trade show or got a subscription to a trade magazine, your name went to a 'mailing house database' and you were in there.

If you ever bought anything and got a receipt, chances are, your purchasing information, from which can be derived your buying habits, were all transmitted from that cash register to a regional data bank, and on to a bigger data bank, within a day's time. Every booming retail company kept track of everything you bought. Hi, Welcome to Walmart.

Most of their efforts, however, don't pay any attention to WHO bought the item. They could generally care less. Often, as the information moves along, the name is even replaced with a transaction number that is randomly assigned to each SALE, not to each person. Their interest is generally not in individuals but in transactions. Their interest is in how many people in a month bought bananas, how that compares to last month, and last year, and the year before, and do people buy more bananas in Detroit than they do in Skokie. So they know how many bananas to buy, where to send the surpluses, what to advertise, etc.

I worked as a clerk for a 'mailing house database' company and it had milions and millions and millions of name, address, phone numbers, and a person's interests, purchases and such.

That company, could, for example, go through all their information, and then sell to an MRI company, a list of several thousand doctors who don't have access to an MRI locally, who would be interested in buying an MRI machine, their income, their interests, name, address, phone, the whole nine yards. It was called a 'targeted mailing list', and there were companies all over the world doing that. With the crumbiest, most outmoded computer hardware and software imaginable, the computer people complained about it endlessly that it was like driving a Model T Ford. Nothing real fancy needed.

Much of THEIR interest wasn't in targeted mailing lists. Their biggest customers were trend finders and market finders. For example, how many people in the midwest expressed an interest in the MRI machine. Just to get a general idea, is it worth having a regional sales office there, or even more currently, should we close the midwest sales office because the demand just isn't there. So for the same reason, a lot of data they sell, has no individual names on it at all.

Health information, on the other hand, is extremely spooky. Because of HIPPA, most of the medical information has to now be extremely anonymous. Names are replaced with a random number. You can't even say, there is a patient X in the midwest with this rare disease, because it would be easy to connect the dots. Medical data that gets sold or re-used is actually very very interestingly handled and the rules are very strict.

And yes, I suppose that even prior to the Patriot Act, there were other provisions for the government to appropriate information about an individual. That's the price one pays for having the ability to detect crimes, terrorism, etc.

Facebook and Google have made it so it's cheaper and easier to get information about more people, but this 'issue' is not anything new. At all.

Can this information be misused? Yes, information has been getting misused since information first existed. Will it be used against ordinary citizens? Unlikely.

There is a sort of 'zenophobia' of technology that people have, that I think is completely and entirely unreasonable. They often say 'oh no! Some new technology! Now I won't have any privacy! Big Brother is watching!'

The bad news is, that it doesn't require 'new technology' at all, and that it has been going on for a very, very long time without any new technology.

The good news is twofold. One is that it is not cost effective to use the information to catch people who have chickens in their backyard, or are doing many of the ordinary things most people do - pay something late, make mistakes on their tax returns, bawl out their neighbor. Two is that from time to time, the information helps someone catch real criminals, people stealing your stuff, people committing financial frauds.

The bad news is that people get the feeling they have no privacy, NOW.

Well the bad news is also, you never did have any privacy, not in the sense that most people think of it. But also, that sort of privacy not being there, has little effect on the average guy. But be advised, there is no need for complicated software or web sites. If someone wants to know something about you, all they have to do is search public records, talk to your neighbors, etc.

 

[booker81]

Not going to quote your whole post, but a hearty yeah that.

I deal with sensitive personal information daily, viewing SSN's, drivers licenses, death certificates, court documents, etc. The company is very strict, and I did have to pass a thorough background check. We have confidentiality training every year.

Still, that's a lot of info out there. We mail a lot of this sensitive information to facilitate transactions, and even UPS overnight letters go missing - and with it goes someone's name, SSN, DOB, address and complete financial information.

There isn't privacy anywhere, even out here in the country.

 

[welsummerchicks]

The other thing I have learned is that it is one thing to have that data, it's another thing entirely to make use of it, give it to someone else and have them correlate itwith their data.

Collecting 'data' is easy, making it into 'information' is not.

 

[Mahonri]

We got lotsa 'Big Brothers' don't we?!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Rio, did you know that "they" are now watching you extra close..... BYC is public forum after all.


Steve

 

[thaiturkey]

A supplier of any kind and size, including internet service providers, will collect information about it's customers and what the buy or use. They may also sell that information to businesses that want to know about buying and using patterns. Provided that the information identifies no individual there can't be a legitimate objection to companies trying to inform themselves so that they can do a better job. I have some concerns, though.

One is about Facebook. If you don't set the new privacy settings correctly, anyone can get your details. I hid my profile from all but existing Facebook friends but today get a call from someone I know who's not a 'friend' there. He had received an email from Facebook telling him that I had an account and lived in his area. That's not what I call private. Facebook have no idea what loonies are lurking around and yet send messages like that.

Another concern is that governments can insist that isp's pass to them data concerning named persons. How do we know what that government might do with that information? It's not just your messages and other activities that are monitored but your personal details too.

Every communication that we make and every record that we have can be monitored without our knowing it. That is why governments love to have the 'terrorist threat' that they actually created themselves. It gives them an excuse to spy on us that many people seem to accept without question. Your internet, mobile 'phone, home 'phone, your snail mail and even your records at home in some instances may all be seen without your knowing. 'I've done nothing wrong so it doesn't matter' is not enough when you don't know who is seeing the data and why.

There's something else that annoys me more than most other examples of governments giving themselves the right to our personal data. In the UK and, I imagine, in many other countries is a piece of legislation that we assumed applied to government organisations as well as companies and individuals. It's called The Data Protection Act and makes it an offence to pass on information that someone has given to, say, a business in the course of making a purchase. The UK government then gave its individual agencies the right to exchange personal data. I suppose it's difficult to object to that. However, I hasn't stopped at that. A few years ago, I got an official looking parking fine demand from a company that manages a car park for McDonalds on the edge of London. I had stayed for more than one hour and hadn't even known there was a time limit. The document carried timed images of my car entering and leaving the car park. This company had access to a government computer system, entered my vehicle licence plate number and got my name and address and probably other personal data. By the time that I had paid the fine they also had my debit card details. So, people I didn't know had plenty of information with which to steal my identity, thanks to the UK government. My Member of Parliament wrote to the government agency and the McD CEO about this but got the finger back from them.

Also in the UK, a guy driving his car looked up to see a huge advertising board showing his name and licence plate number and telling him what brand of Castrol motor oil his car needed. A camera down the road had picked up his number, fed it through to the same government computer to get his details and put up the message where he would pass it a minute or two later.

Privacy works one way. You have to respect it but they don't.