The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

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The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

Postby PMC » Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:36 pm

Michael Geist has a piece that covers RBC but applies to all in smart phone use.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6970/135/
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Re: The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:10 pm

A very interesting item. George Orwell was right in his book 1984 - about big brother (in this case big business).

And then there's the US government ( and Canadian government?) and who knows who else. is mining information. about you and me.

We use loyalty cards all the time without a thought about the information that the store gathers about us. What a world we live in. There is no such thing as total privacy - unless you live in a cave totally off the grid. No mater what we do, we are all tracked to a greater or lesser degree.




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Re: The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

Postby jon » Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:27 pm

I think a more relevant comparison is with Facebook. The company has been pretty open about what business they are in: highly accurate targeting of advertising based on as much personal information as they can get from each of their Users. I say "User" because you are not their Customer. Their Customer is the Advertiser. Much in the way that Cowboys rounded up stray horses in the Old West. The horses weren't the Customers, the Horse Buyers were.

What we are seeing now is companies looking closely at the Facebook example and realizing the possibilities for making big money from advertisers if they can target ads by capturing and exploiting a lot of information about each person who uses their services.

Facebook has always been at the forefront of "pushing the envelope" in terms of capturing and exploiting user information.
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Re: The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

Postby isthisthingon » Wed Oct 16, 2013 6:12 pm

Tape Splicer wrote: We use loyalty cards all the time without a thought about the information that the store gathers about us.


YES! Just consider what a Safeway Club card generates in exchange for a few cents off milk or some Air Miles: Gas fill = approximate size/value of vehicle, Prescriptions = very personal information, Liquor purchases = insurance company/police intelligence after a car accident, Newborn diapers = baby/toddler/teenager coupons forever . . . They've gotcha.
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Re: The Great Canadian Personal Data Grab

Postby Mike Cleaver » Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:32 pm

Privacy disappeared with the arrival of computers.
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54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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