I Know Where Your Cat Lives
If you have posted a picture of your cat online, data analyst and artist Owen Mundy, and now, the rest of the world, knows where it lives. And, by that logic, he knows where you live, too.
The real 10 algorithms that dominate our world
The other day, while I was navigating Reddit I found an interesting post that was called The 10 Algorithms That Dominate Our World by the author George Dvorsky which was trying to explain the importance that algorithms have in our world today and which ones are the most important for our civilization.
Ghostery
Ghostery shows you the invisible web : cookies, tags, web bugs, pixels, beacons and companies interested in your activity. Then it helps you learn about those companies, so you can make informed decisions about what you are/aren’t willing to share, and control your online privacy.
After you’ve seen what’s tracking you, you can decide whether or not you want to block any or all of the companies in Ghostery’s library. Are there some marketers you trust, but others you’d rather turn away?
Dragnet Nation – Julia Angwin
In this thought-provoking, highly accessible exploration of the issues around personal data-gathering, Julia Angwin provides a startling account of how we’re all being tracked, watched, studied, and sorted. Her own (often very funny) attempts to maintain her online privacy demonstrate the ubiquity of the dragnet—and the near impossibility of evading it. I’ll never use Google in the same way again.”
—Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of Happier at Home and The Happiness Project
BBC “Virtual Revolution” – Episode 3 : The cost of free
In the 3rd episode of this four-part series, Dr Aleks Krotoski gives the lowdown on how commerce has colonised the web and reveals how web users are paying for what appear to be ‘free’ sites and services in hidden ways. She is joined by some of the most influential business leaders of today’s web, including Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Chad Hurley (CEO of YouTube), Bill Gates, Martha Lane Fox and Reed Hastings (CEO of Netflix).
Aleks Krotoski also explores how web advertising is evolving further to become more targeted and what this may mean for our notions of privacy.
Acxiom, the Quiet Giant of Consumer Database Marketing
Few consumers may have heard of Acxiom, a database marketer. But it has amassed the world’s largest commercial data trove about them.
In a fast-changing digital economy, Acxiom is developing even more advanced techniques to mine and refine data and to predict consumer behavior.
Federal authorities say current laws may not be equipped to handle the rapid expansion of an industry whose players often collect and sell sensitive financial and health information yet are nearly invisible to the public.
How much is your personal data worth?
Explore how valuable your data are with this interactive calculator. While the multibillion-dollar data broker industry profits from the trade of thousands of details about individuals, those bits of information are often sold for a fraction of a penny apiece.
The Data Brokers: Selling your personal information
Steve Kroft investigates the multibillion dollar industry that collects, analyzes and sells the personal information of millions of Americans with virtually no oversight.
Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security. What most of you don’t know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you’ve probably never heard of, in the name of commerce.
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