I read this article at the Business Insider and have referenced the original article link they gave here. If you have read here long enough then you know all about this issue with “data sellers” and the billions they make in profits. This is just one more level of the power of data and connecting it. If you go to the link at the bottom you can read all the information relative to privacy statements to where they have included all of this. They reference Jawbone and Fitbit policies and you can dig around this blog to see similar types of posts. The content here is based on a sales rep who anonymously came through with the information who works for one of these data selling/mining companies. Remember in addition to getting the data to monitor, they make billions selling it as well.
Jawbone Buys BodyMedia. Launches New “Up App” Platform–Partnerships Allow for More of Your Data and Profiles To Be Sold As Data Selling Epidemic Continues to Grow
Recently we had the story about insurers buying up consumer spending records on charge and debit cards to which Blue Cross stated they were looking for consumers buying a size larger clothes so this seems to fit right in there.
Insurance Companies Are Buying Up Consumer Spending Data-Time is Here to License and Tax the Data Sellers-As Insurers Sell Tons of Data, Gets Flawed Data When Data Buyers Uses Out of Context Too
When it comes down to analyzing purchases as well, could you be purchasing some food for someone else too, of course you could, like your kids for one. Again this is the danger of using data out of context and the recent stories of the IRS show how data, left unattended for regulation can let this all happen. They saw the opportunity to pursue the data and information being available and went for it. If one works with data and knows the mechanics needed to secure and run analytics with any kind of data, this comes as no surprise as it’s there for the taking and again, the billions in profits that are made as well. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the consumer suffers.
Data Floating Around the Web and You Don’t Know How It Got There? Time to License and Excise Tax Data Sellers–Identify “Flawed Data” Epidemic At The Root of the Problem
Last year I wrote about this and there’s a good video with big conglomerates talking about how they are looking at big data and again when used out of context with no regulation and nothing requiring data sellers to buy a license, we don’t know who they are and what kind of data they sell and to who?
Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game
If we keep headed in this direction, will it soon be a crime to buy a Twinkie? This is why I began my campaign to license and tax the data sellers as without any type of regulation and identification for consumers, it will run hog wild and with this article it somewhat confirms what I have been writing about for the last 3 years on this blog. All privacy laws will fail without identifying who and what is being sold and again the ability to make billions in profits continues with banks and corporations. If we don’t identify all who are in the game and what they are selling, it’s open to all kinds of consumer abuse all over the place and again it will and can be used “out of context”.
Time Has Come to License and Tax the Data Sellers of the Web, Companies, Banks, Social Networks..Any One Making a Profit-Latest Microsoft/Google Privacy War Helping the Cause –Consumers Deserve to Know What Is Being Sold and To Who in a Searchable Format
So again, I like the medical devices that go directly to a PHR that does not have a web app in the middle, like some of what HealthVault offers so you are in control of what you share with who and saw
that when all the web apps with their data gathering algorithms began. so the sales rep who provided the material for this article seems to pretty much validate most everything that I have said on this blog for the last few years. Again, without identifying the data sellers and requiring a license and the ability to tax the billions in profit they make to begin moving some money back to the consumer side, the more information they get, the more they are in a position to use it against you. This is indeed sad that this is the way it is playing out and no wonder consumers are non trusting. The data mechanics to do this are only getting better and corporations and banks are just getting richer doing so. Watch the videos in the footer of this blog and you can also visit the Algo Duping page where folks smarter than me have created videos that help explain how this works as well. BD
“Devaluate the Algorithm” And “Tax the Data Sellers”–A Cure for Both Healthcare and an Economy Based Heavily on Intangibles–We’ve Lost Our Balance
According to a sales rep for a Midwest data co-location and analytics startup who asked to remain anonymous, regional hospitals, insurers, and grocery retailers are already investigating ways to work together to translate consumer purchase data into health risk profiling insights. Kevin Pledge, CEO of underwriting-technology consultancy Insight Decision Solutions told the Economist last year that he has forgone the use of supermarket loyalty-cards and begun paying cash for his burgers to avoid this very type of profiling. The same article mentions a life-settlements firm declining to purchase an insurance policy based on social media activity that contradicted the supposed poor health of the policy-holder.
These are far from the only example of companies reaching further into our personal data – consumer reports has a rundown of many others – but they should be enough to make us all rethink that package of bacon, those dozen Krispy Kremes, or those Marlboros. One day, the same analysis is likely to be applied to how often we exercise, the length and quality of sleep we get, our eating habits, and possibly even the health of our sex lives.
It’s easy to come off sounding paranoid, and many would argue that the value received from quantified self devices and services justifies the risk. But it’s not those who consciously make that decision I’m worried about. It’s those who buy a Jawbone Up because it’s sold at the Apple Store then connect it to several Web apps because their trainer recommends them without considering long-term implications. Data is powerful, and just as it has the power to enhance our lives, in the wrong hands it can also harm us.
http://pandodaily.com/2013/05/20/you-are-your-data-the-scary-future-of-the-quantified-self-movement/
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