<story><title>The Fantasy of Opting Out</title><url>https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-fantasy-of-opting-out/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zeta0134</author><text>This is something I wish was noted more often. When I&amp;#x27;m searching for something on Amazon, I have intentionally visited that storefront and am willfully handing them my data (in the form of search and browsing history); of &lt;i&gt;course&lt;/i&gt; Amazon is going to keep that and use it to personalize my results. Frankly that&amp;#x27;s part of their value add, so this is neither surprising nor particularly upsetting.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s surprising to most people (and should be the focus of any litigation, imho) is precisely this third-party data sharing. It&amp;#x27;s partly why the cookie law drives me nuts, since it&amp;#x27;s made all tracking the bogeyman, and in reality, most first party &amp;quot;tracking&amp;quot; is completely benign. If companies would agree not to sell or share my data with third parties (law enforcement serving a warrant being the major exception) then I have no real issue with the tech. The blatant sharing, and especially &lt;i&gt;ad networks&lt;/i&gt; make my blood boil.</text></item><item><author>simonh</author><text>This is silly, we are all observed by other people almost all of our lives, but that&amp;#x27;s fine because they don&amp;#x27;t conspire behind our backs to create a comprehensive record that&amp;#x27;s handed over to the government. I don&amp;#x27;t mind if the building security records me entering the building, or the bank records me using the ATM, or that London Transport videos me on the train. What I object to is if all of those are stitched together and handed over to advertising agencies or my employer.&lt;p&gt;Likewise I don&amp;#x27;t care that Google knows what I searched for, or that Twitter knows what I tweeted, or that LinkedIn has my employment history. What I don&amp;#x27;t want is all of that being sold to Cambridge Analytica to then aggregate and sell on to someone else for goodness knows what purposes.&lt;p&gt;An awful lot of my life and interests are easily searchable. My handle here is basically just my name, and I use the same handle or even more complete versions everywhere I can. When I&amp;#x27;m out in public, the public can see me. When I post in public, the public can read what I say. That&amp;#x27;s fine, that&amp;#x27;s why I said it.&lt;p&gt;However my private correspondences with my wife and kids on iMessage or WhatsApp are nobody else&amp;#x27;s business. My bank transactions and online shopping likewise, that latter is mainly between me and Amazon. Where I would get upset is if Amazon sold that data to Google to show me &amp;#x27;relevant ads&amp;#x27;, or show my purchases to my friends. Remember Facebook Beacon? There need to be clear, hard lines in the sand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Jgoure</author><text>Anecdotally, I purchased a heated blanket from Amazon for my father and had it shipped to his address. When I went to look at order details, Amazon advertised to me other things the person I shipped this item to may like. Men Diapers, Pet treats etc... I don&amp;#x27;t own a pet due to allergies and I am very young to be searching for adult diapers. I found it very rude and unprofessional of Amazon to share such a personal suggestion with me.&lt;p&gt;I called Amazons customer service to complain about their suggestions. The representative said that their suggestions are based on my searches and purchases. I believe the suggestions are also based on the purchases made for that address.&lt;p&gt;My father doesn&amp;#x27;t even get an option to opt out of Amazon suggesting things he&amp;#x27;s purchased, to other people to purchase for him. There isn&amp;#x27;t an option for privacy.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Fantasy of Opting Out</title><url>https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-fantasy-of-opting-out/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zeta0134</author><text>This is something I wish was noted more often. When I&amp;#x27;m searching for something on Amazon, I have intentionally visited that storefront and am willfully handing them my data (in the form of search and browsing history); of &lt;i&gt;course&lt;/i&gt; Amazon is going to keep that and use it to personalize my results. Frankly that&amp;#x27;s part of their value add, so this is neither surprising nor particularly upsetting.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s surprising to most people (and should be the focus of any litigation, imho) is precisely this third-party data sharing. It&amp;#x27;s partly why the cookie law drives me nuts, since it&amp;#x27;s made all tracking the bogeyman, and in reality, most first party &amp;quot;tracking&amp;quot; is completely benign. If companies would agree not to sell or share my data with third parties (law enforcement serving a warrant being the major exception) then I have no real issue with the tech. The blatant sharing, and especially &lt;i&gt;ad networks&lt;/i&gt; make my blood boil.</text></item><item><author>simonh</author><text>This is silly, we are all observed by other people almost all of our lives, but that&amp;#x27;s fine because they don&amp;#x27;t conspire behind our backs to create a comprehensive record that&amp;#x27;s handed over to the government. I don&amp;#x27;t mind if the building security records me entering the building, or the bank records me using the ATM, or that London Transport videos me on the train. What I object to is if all of those are stitched together and handed over to advertising agencies or my employer.&lt;p&gt;Likewise I don&amp;#x27;t care that Google knows what I searched for, or that Twitter knows what I tweeted, or that LinkedIn has my employment history. What I don&amp;#x27;t want is all of that being sold to Cambridge Analytica to then aggregate and sell on to someone else for goodness knows what purposes.&lt;p&gt;An awful lot of my life and interests are easily searchable. My handle here is basically just my name, and I use the same handle or even more complete versions everywhere I can. When I&amp;#x27;m out in public, the public can see me. When I post in public, the public can read what I say. That&amp;#x27;s fine, that&amp;#x27;s why I said it.&lt;p&gt;However my private correspondences with my wife and kids on iMessage or WhatsApp are nobody else&amp;#x27;s business. My bank transactions and online shopping likewise, that latter is mainly between me and Amazon. Where I would get upset is if Amazon sold that data to Google to show me &amp;#x27;relevant ads&amp;#x27;, or show my purchases to my friends. Remember Facebook Beacon? There need to be clear, hard lines in the sand.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Wowfunhappy</author><text>Counterpoint: Many of the tech giants are so big and all-encompassing that they are practically their own third party. Google can take your location history from Google Maps and use it to recommend videos on Youtube.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps more importantly, restricting third-party but not first-party sharing creates bad incentives. If Google could share search data with first-party services like Google Reviews, but not third-party ones like Yelp, what does that mean for Yelp? We&amp;#x27;d just be encouraging the largest companies to bring even more of the world in-house.</text></comment>