By Carl Weiss
Big business calls it Data
Mining. Consumers think of it as an
invasion of privacy. Cybercriminals look
at it as an opportunity to line their pockets.
What it boils down to is the fact that as you surf the web it leaves
digital breadcrumbs that people can scoop up in an effort to make money. If this bothers you, then you need to be
aware of how your browsing habits can be used against you as well as what you
need to do to minimize the electronic trail you leave every time you go online.
Drilling for Consumer Gold
While the term “Data mining”
was coined in the 1990’s, the actual practice of digital data storage and
manipulation has been around for more than 30 years. An outgrowth of database management and
machine learning systems that were developed in the 1980’s, data mining was
traditionally used to find patterns and relationships in order to predict
buying habits. In the early days of the
internet, this was accomplished by getting the consumer to fill out online
surveys that were designed to get them to divulge key buying and income
information that could be used to deliver targeted advertisements. (If you ever
entered a contest to win a prize online, you are familiar with this kind of
tactic.)
However, with the advent of
social networks and with the rise of web browsers that were designed to report
on every keystroke (such as Google Chrome), it is no longer necessary to offer
an inducement to consumers to ascertain their buying and browsing habits. This explains why you continue to see ads for
products after you search for them on most search engines. If that was where the trail ended, most
people would just shrug it off as the cost of doing business online.
Far from being the be-all or
end-all of the equation, the gathering and initial use of this data is only the
tip of a vast submerged iceberg. Because
once this data is accumulated it is then packaged and sold on a worldwide basis
to anyone and everyone willing to pay for it.
Who Buys My Data?
The NSA, FBI and other
government entities pay for access to mountains of data.
An August 24, 2013 report by
the Wall Street Journal stated that,
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo
and Facebook all supply user data to the NSA based on secret ordered from the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court under a program known as Prism. Although
U.S. law mandates compliance, the government usually helps pay for it.
While many of the companies
that share data with the government, such as Microsoft, extol the fact that
they only provide this information because they are legally ordered to, all of
the major players not only accept compensation, they expect it.
A Yahoo spokeswoman referred questions to its Friday comment
in the Guardian. “Federal law requires the US government to reimburse providers
for costs incurred to respond to compulsory legal process imposed by the
government,” the company told the newspaper. “We have requested reimbursement
consistent with this law.”
We’re not talking chump
change here either. More importantly,
who else do these internet edifices share or sell their data with? Well, it all depends on who you ask. Take Google, for instance. While the world’s largest search engine is
tight lipped when it comes to who they share or sell information to, in a 2008
article in the German magazine Stern, the magazine bought a list containing the
names, addresses, dates of birth, occupations and phone numbers of hundreds of
German citizens from the world’s most popular search engine.
The writer of the article
actually picked up the phone and called the phone numbers on the list, informing
each person who picked up how and where he had obtained the information. Since Germany has strict laws regarding the
protection of personal data, those who were contacted were outraged as was the
German government, who subsequently sued Google.
Google wasn’t the
only internet company sued over privacy issues by Germany. So was Facebook, which was dragged into a
lawsuit by German authorities in
2011 over its use of face
recognition software on its services.
Of course in the United
States there are no such legal speed bumps in the data mining
superhighway. More to the point, not
only is your personal information available, but what is amazing is the sheer
volume that is being collected. And while search engines and social networks
can be tight lipped when it comes who can use their data, there are other
companies that are quite up front when it comes to selling the personal data of
every man, woman and child in the US.
Two companies, Acxiom and
Epsilon, are a couple of the largest data mining operations in the world. To quote Wikipedia, “Acxiom has
been described as "one of the biggest companies you've never heard of.
In addition to collecting information about people, the
company helps marketers anticipate the needs of consumers. According to the
documentary "The Persuaders." As the world's largest processor of
consumer data, Acxiom
has identified 70 types of consumers with its segmentation product PersonicX.”
Here’s some data on Acxiom:
In the third quarter of 2012, Acxiom’s revenue was $281 million, which was down
2% from the same quarter a year before.
For the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2011, Acxiom’s revenue was up
5.5% to $1.16 billion.
“Most people know that basically everything that we do on the Internet is tracked, but data mining
goes far beyond that. When you use a customer rewards card at the
supermarket, the data miners know about it. When you pay for a purchase
with a credit card or a debit card, the data miners know about it. Every
time you buy a prescription drug, that information is sold to someone.
Every time you apply for a loan, a whole host of organizations is
notified. Information has become an extremely valuable commodity, and
thanks to computers and the Internet it is easier to gather information than
ever before.”
Who Owns My Data?
The biggest problem for
consumers is that for the most part, they do not own their data. If you subscribe to any social network, blog or
portal you need to read the find print in their user agreements. Because if you do, you will find out that
while you are free to post information about yourself and your friends, you do
not in fact own it. The operators of the
social networks, blogs and portals do.
The only way to be sure of
who owns what is to actually read the user agreements that are part and parcel
of every browser, search engine, portal and social network. How many of us ever do that? This is important since the terms of use
change from year to year. Google has
made a number of sweeping changes to its privacy issues over the years. (No
wonder, since they spend a great deal of time defending their data collection
habits in court.) In the current iteration under the heading of “Information We
Share” is the following:
We do not share personal information with
companies, organizations and individuals outside of Google unless one of the
following circumstances applies:
·
With your consent
We will share personal
information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google when
we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
·
With domain administrators
If your Google Account is
managed for you by a domain administrator (for
example, for Google Apps users) then your domain administrator and resellers who
provide user support to your organization will have access to your Google
Account information (including your email and other data).
Have a Cookie
The real elephant in the room
is the fact that for the most part, companies and/or individuals who want to
track your every movement online do not have to even ask your permission. All they have to do is get you to accept
their cookie. These cookies are not as
sweet as they sound. All they are is a
subroutine that is designed to collect information from your computer, tablet
or smartphone. The way they get onto
your system is simplicity itself. You
open the door and let them in.
Have you ever downloaded a
“Free App?” Have you ever signed up to
play a “Free Game?” Have you ever
entered a “Free Contest?” If the answer
is yes to any of the above then you may have accepted a cookie onto your system
that is now free to roam and collect as you point and click. Some people have so many cookies on the loose
in their machine that it slows it to a crawl.
Sound familiar?
How Do You shake the Bugs Out of the Rug?
While the cleaning mechanism
varies from browser to browser, there are ways to clean the digital
carpet. If you are using Chrome, click
on the master control button on the far right of the browser. (It’s the one that has three parallel black
lines.) By clicking on this button and
then hitting history you will be able to clear out both your browsing history
and any cookies that you have picked up along the way. (You can also hit
Control H.) While this won’t prevent
other cookies from attaching themselves to your device, it will shake out those
already onboard. (You can also buy third-party web scrubbers such as AdvancedSystem Care, that will not only shake the bugs out of the rug, but it will also
add an additional layer of adware protection to help you keep these freeloaders
out of your system.) You can also switch to search engines such as
duckduckgo.com that does not track your browsing/search habits.
Better still is to opt for a
more proactive approach. This entails
being more careful about where you click and what you accept for free. In terms of browsers, you can either find a
browser (such as Komodo Dragon) http://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.phpthat
does not collect user information. Or,
if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Chrome user, you can hit the same master control
button and opt to open a “New Incognito Window.” While using this option will eliminate some of
your browsing traces such as search history and cookies, according to Google,
it still doesn’t protect you from:
Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of:
- Websites that
collect or share information about you
- Internet
service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
- Malicious
software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
- Surveillance
by secret agents
- People
standing behind you
While changing your browsing
habits may seem so much like work, when you realize all the many ways that your
personal information can be compromised by others, the last thing you want to
do is help them dig a hole from which you cannot hope to escape.
Carl Weiss is president of Working the Web to Win, a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida. He is also co-host of the weekly radio show of the same name which is broadcast live every Tuesday at 4 pm eastern on BlogTalkRadio.
