I'm the accidental privacy advocate out there and I say that as it was never my intentions to dive in but I did. The reason I did was because everyone else with their good intentions are not data people, and they can't visualize the data mechanics, logic and cannot be descriptive enough about what goes on behind the scenes that you and I and nobody but the machines and the programmers can see. I got tired of reading articles that don't do anything to tell people "how it really is" and how the data mechanics work.
Yes I'm a tech and get a little out there once in a while so be kind and put up with me if will if I go off and be a little too technical at times. I work fast and sometimes I can't type fast enough to keep up with my brain and at times it gets interesting:)
I don't know if you read about CVS and their new new e-commerce announcements, but one thing to think of when you hear "e-commece" is to think data selling as that's what they are doing maximizing their data and the money it can bring in.
You can read this link and see where they are having one center in Boston and another in Silicon Valley. There's this rush for code out there it appears to make money and CVS has that written all over their face. Also this week, two big banks, Duetsche and NY Mellon, same thing looking for web coast computer code and setting up shop in Silicon Valley.
CVS E-Commerce and Data Selling
I have been working on my own as a hobby to get a bill passed to license all data sellers so we know who they are. This is part of the problem -who are they? We know the obvious but have you ever heard of Argus? Probably not, but you may want to look at they collect and sell all your credit card transactions to banks and insurance companies, that is after they have done some analytics and "scored" you. You don't even know you've been scored! It's the secret scoring of America that's going on everywhere and denies us access and accelerates inequality as "algorithm says no" to be blunt.
Also look who else is buying data from Argus, none other than our wimpy Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chief, Cordray who' a lost cause. He's better than nothing as he can go after low hanging fruit but when it comes to data mechancis, he's still learning and even the White House not too long ago said he's a slow learner in so many words.
Argus Analytics Selling your Credit Card Data Everywhere
So what I have going on here is a small crowd funding page and if anyone wants to donate I'm grateful but there's more videos over there worth a watch and more data selling information that will make your skin crawl a bit too. Again I have been doing this on my own for 3 years and write to the FTC and some members of Congress every week without fail. Before anything can be done with privacy, who are they is the question to be asked. This is like step one to create an index of who they are and what they sell so consumers would be able to look them up.
You get repackaged and sold over and over and of course this has happened to me where I can't get rid of flawed data that some data broker put in there. I get rid of them once, and they come back when someone else buys that flawed data base, it's maddening. So again my efforts here would be to get a law passed to license all data sellers and require a disclosure of what kind of data they sell, just a profile, full data file on us that has social security numbers, etc. or just and address list, we don't know.
Pay attention to Pam at the World Privacy Forum on the video when she testifies and yes Rockefeller is on my list too but she tells you as well what's going on with data selling and the Secret Scoring of America. Again if you feel inclined to kick in a few dollars that would be great as again my efforts here to help inform everyone from a data side of things that are going on that you can't see.
Privacy Transparency - License all US Data Sellers
I call it the Attack of the Killer Algorithms and if you want see more on that end of things with how you get duped by marketing and financial folks, there's a big group of vidoes there that will catch you up. Just book mark it and come back as there's too many to watch at one sitting.
Attack of the Killer Algorithms
About 4 of these videos I keep in the footer of my blog as well. This is just getting so bad out there and it's growing and again the US now has the biggest gap going between the wealthy and the rest of us now and it's the math and computer code that's moving money and denying access. It's the friggin computer code and don't let anyone else tell you different:) The only good politicians out there are the ones who will direct the programmers to change some of this and again get that law passed so we have an index on who's selling our data and our souls out there as they continue to strip all of us of any dignity we have left.