Robert Vinet

Traveller

Tag: Personal Data

DuckDuckGo CEO explains how they make money without profiling users, and how Google and Facebook could do the same

2018.07.14 /

Gabriel Weinberg via Quora:

Alarmingly, Google now deploys hidden trackers on 76% of websites across the web to monitor your behavior and Facebook has hidden trackers on about 25% of websites, according to the Princeton Web Transparency & Accountability Project. It is likely that Google and/or Facebook are watching you on most sites you visit, in addition to tracking you when using their products.

As a result, these two companies have amassed huge data profiles on individuals, which can include interests, past purchases, search, browsing and location history, and much more. This personal data is stored indefinitely and used for invasive targeted advertising that can follow you around the Internet.

Via Twitter:

How can you tell if your personal data was shared with Cambridge Analytica?

2018.04.10 /

Facebook has published a page you can access, after you log into your account, that will tell you if the personal data Facebook collects on your was scraped by Cambridge Analytica with the “This Is Your Digital Life” app.

Remember, this is only about one app by one company. There are thousands of these apps that profile users on Facebook. They all collect your personal data to better profile users. Cambridge Analytica is only the tip of the iceberg.

Remember also that Facebook has all that personal data about you. Are you comfortable with Facebook having control of so much of your personal data?

More:

Here’s why tech companies abuse our data: because we let them – Brett Frischmann, The Guardian

How many times has Zuckerberg asked us to trust him? Too many

2018.03.21 /

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally come forward to respond. But only to blame Cambridge Analytica for breaching Facebook’s trust, which in turn caused Facebook to break users’ trust. He vows to prevent it from happening again.

Later in the day, as users delete their Facebook accounts, Zuckerberg apologized over the scandal on CNN, saying he was “really sorry this happened.”

The fact remains that Facebook will continue to collect people’s information anyway possible in an effort to profile them. That’s at the core of it’s business. By saying they “need to make sure this doesn’t happen again” says they have no intention to not collect user information. Zuckerberg still wants us to trust Facebook with our personal data.

Meanwhile, the German government has summoned Facebook looking for details about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They also want to know whether the personal data of the platform’s 30 million users in Germany were protected from unlawful use.

Now would be a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign. Users are abandoning the platform.

More: Wired, CNNMoney, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Recode, MIT Technology Review, TechCrunch, The Hill, Bloomberg, Vox, USA Today, Quartz, Business Insider, ZDNet, CNET, The Guardian, Reuters, Forbes, Adweek, BBC, NBC News, New York Magazine, CNBC, Politico, Axios, Politico, and Seeking Alpha.

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