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unapproved post for madscientist159 above
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Yes, I know exactly what personal data is. I also know there's no such thing as truly anonymized data -- at some point in the data set growth, the data itself becomes a better identifier of who you are than your address or phone number.Originally posted by starshipeleven View PostYou know what "personal data" even means?
It's information that can be used to track you down in the physical world, and/or religion/political/health status. Name, address, biometric data.
It's not really useful or even required for targeted advertising or swinging elections.
Each user of these services is assigned a ID, (Google also allows you to change it on a whim on Android https://support.google.com/googlepla.../6048248?hl=en ), which is the only thing they really need to know about you. This is usually stored in cookies or gathered from unique IDs provided by the browser/OS somehow. Or of course linked to your account, if you log in then they will link that to your username.
example: "oh look it's 23845248278478, the user from Seattle that bought X, W, Y on Amazon and visited sites A, B, C this week, let's show him ads about things he did in the past"
Does that really need your name? Your address? That's creepy. Do they need to know that you are a hardcore Pastafarian with gluten addiction? No, they just need to know what you did in the past and will suggest you the best selection of Gluten-rich pasta.
Besides, Facebook is busy matching your legal personal data (phone number, address, etc.) to your "anonymous" data profile:
And collecting your phone number to better push advertising:
Knowing what you bought on one platform in the past isn't going to allow prediction with high enough accuracy to keep you locked into that platform in the future with predictive purchasing. Knowing who exactly you are on multple platforms, and building a metamodel of you that knows you better than yourself, now that might just do the trick...Comment
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