'More than 600 apps had admittance to my iPhone data'
While Facebook desperately tightens controls over how third parties access its users' data - attempting to mend its damaged reputation - attention is focusing upon the wider issue of data harvesting and also the threat it poses to our personal privacy.
Data harvesting is really a multibillion dollar industry and also the sobering simple the reality is which you many never know just just simply the amount data companies hold in your respect, or how you can delete it.
That is the startling conclusion drawn by some privacy campaigners and technology companies.
" Lots and lots of companies are inside the business of harvesting your data and tracking your web behaviour, " says Frederike Kaltheuner, data programme lead for lobby group Privacy International.
" It is a global business. And never just online, but offline, too, via loyalty cards and wi-fi tracking of those mobile. It is really almost impossible to understand what is happening within your data. "
The really big data brokers - firms for example Acxiom, Experian, Quantium, Corelogic, eBureau, ID Analytics - can hold as numerous as 3, 000 data points on every consumer, says the US Federal Trade Commission.
Ms Kaltheuner says a lot greater than 600 apps also have admittance to her iPhone data within the last six years. So she is taken upon the onerous task of checking out exactly what these apps understand about her.
" It might have a year, " she says, since it involves poring over every privacy policy then contacting the app provider to correctly . And never taking " no " for the answer.
Not just can it be difficult to understand what data is on the market, additionally it is difficult to understand how accurate It's.
" They got my income totally wrong, they got my marital status wrong, " says Pamela Dixon, executive director on the World Privacy Forum, another privacy rights lobby group.
She was examining her record with perhaps one of the merchants that scoop up and sell data on individuals world wide.
She found herself listed like a computer enthusiast - " which is really a bit annoying, I am not running around buying computers daily " - and like a runner, though she is a cyclist.
Susan Bidel, senior analyst at Forrester Research in New York, who covers data brokers, says a common belief in the profession is which " 50% of the data is accurate " .
So why does any of the make any difference?
Because this " ridiculous marketing data " , as Ms Dixon calls it, is now determining life chances.
Consumer data - our likes, dislikes, buying behaviour, income level, leisure pursuits, personalities etc - certainly helps brands target their advertising dollars more effectively.
But its main use " is to scale back risk of one kind or another, not to a target ads, " believes John Deighton, a professor at Harvard Business School who writes upon the industry.
We're all given credit scores nowadays.
If the knowledge flatters you, your credit cards and mortgages will certainly be much cheaper, and you'll pass employment background checks more easily, says Prof Deighton.
But these scores might not merely be inaccurate, They'll be discriminatory, hiding details about race, marital status, and religion, says Ms Dixon.
" A personal may never understand that she or he Didn't receive an interview, job, discount, premium, coupon, or opportunity due to some low score, " the World Privacy Forum concludes in the report.
Collecting consumer data is happening for providing companies happen to be attempting to sell us stuff.
As far back as 1841, Dun & Bradstreet collected credit information and gossip on possible credit-seekers. Inside the 1970s, list brokers offered magnetic tapes containing data with a bewildering array of groups : holders of fishing licences, magazine subscribers, or people more planning to inherit wealth.
But nowadays, the sheer scale of online data has swamped the common offline census and voter registration data.
Much of the data is aggregated and anonymised, but much of them is not. And many people have minimum idea just simply the amount data we're sharing, often because we agree to online terms and conditions without reading them. Perhaps understandably.
Two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University inside the US worked out that if you had been to learn to read every privacy policy you came across online, it might take you 76 days, reading eight hours on a daily basis.
And anyway, having to do that " shouldn't become a citizen's job " , argues Frederike Kaltheuner, " Companies should really need to protect our data like a default. "
Rashmi Knowles from security firm RSA points out that it is not just data harvesters and advertisers that are out there for our particular data.
" Often hackers can answer your security question answers - stuff like date of birth, mother's maiden name, etc - because you've shared these records inside the public domain, " she says.
" You'll be amazed how simple It's to piece together a relatively accurate profile from just a number of snippets of data, and also this information can be utilized for identity theft. "
Therefore how can we take control in our data?
There will be ways we will restrict how much data we share with third parties - changing browser settings to block cookies, for instance, using ad-blocking software, browsing " incognito " or using virtual private networks.
Data harvesting is really a multibillion dollar industry and also the sobering simple the reality is which you many never know just just simply the amount data companies hold in your respect, or how you can delete it.
That is the startling conclusion drawn by some privacy campaigners and technology companies.
" Lots and lots of companies are inside the business of harvesting your data and tracking your web behaviour, " says Frederike Kaltheuner, data programme lead for lobby group Privacy International.
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" It is a global business. And never just online, but offline, too, via loyalty cards and wi-fi tracking of those mobile. It is really almost impossible to understand what is happening within your data. "
The really big data brokers - firms for example Acxiom, Experian, Quantium, Corelogic, eBureau, ID Analytics - can hold as numerous as 3, 000 data points on every consumer, says the US Federal Trade Commission.
Ms Kaltheuner says a lot greater than 600 apps also have admittance to her iPhone data within the last six years. So she is taken upon the onerous task of checking out exactly what these apps understand about her.
" It might have a year, " she says, since it involves poring over every privacy policy then contacting the app provider to correctly . And never taking " no " for the answer.
Not just can it be difficult to understand what data is on the market, additionally it is difficult to understand how accurate It's.
" They got my income totally wrong, they got my marital status wrong, " says Pamela Dixon, executive director on the World Privacy Forum, another privacy rights lobby group.
She was examining her record with perhaps one of the merchants that scoop up and sell data on individuals world wide.
She found herself listed like a computer enthusiast - " which is really a bit annoying, I am not running around buying computers daily " - and like a runner, though she is a cyclist.
Susan Bidel, senior analyst at Forrester Research in New York, who covers data brokers, says a common belief in the profession is which " 50% of the data is accurate " .
So why does any of the make any difference?
Because this " ridiculous marketing data " , as Ms Dixon calls it, is now determining life chances.
Consumer data - our likes, dislikes, buying behaviour, income level, leisure pursuits, personalities etc - certainly helps brands target their advertising dollars more effectively.
But its main use " is to scale back risk of one kind or another, not to a target ads, " believes John Deighton, a professor at Harvard Business School who writes upon the industry.
We're all given credit scores nowadays.
If the knowledge flatters you, your credit cards and mortgages will certainly be much cheaper, and you'll pass employment background checks more easily, says Prof Deighton.
But these scores might not merely be inaccurate, They'll be discriminatory, hiding details about race, marital status, and religion, says Ms Dixon.
" A personal may never understand that she or he Didn't receive an interview, job, discount, premium, coupon, or opportunity due to some low score, " the World Privacy Forum concludes in the report.
Collecting consumer data is happening for providing companies happen to be attempting to sell us stuff.
As far back as 1841, Dun & Bradstreet collected credit information and gossip on possible credit-seekers. Inside the 1970s, list brokers offered magnetic tapes containing data with a bewildering array of groups : holders of fishing licences, magazine subscribers, or people more planning to inherit wealth.
But nowadays, the sheer scale of online data has swamped the common offline census and voter registration data.
Much of the data is aggregated and anonymised, but much of them is not. And many people have minimum idea just simply the amount data we're sharing, often because we agree to online terms and conditions without reading them. Perhaps understandably.
Two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University inside the US worked out that if you had been to learn to read every privacy policy you came across online, it might take you 76 days, reading eight hours on a daily basis.
And anyway, having to do that " shouldn't become a citizen's job " , argues Frederike Kaltheuner, " Companies should really need to protect our data like a default. "
Rashmi Knowles from security firm RSA points out that it is not just data harvesters and advertisers that are out there for our particular data.
" Often hackers can answer your security question answers - stuff like date of birth, mother's maiden name, etc - because you've shared these records inside the public domain, " she says.
" You'll be amazed how simple It's to piece together a relatively accurate profile from just a number of snippets of data, and also this information can be utilized for identity theft. "
Therefore how can we take control in our data?
There will be ways we will restrict how much data we share with third parties - changing browser settings to block cookies, for instance, using ad-blocking software, browsing " incognito " or using virtual private networks.
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