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Can you say the same thing about the people they researched to validate your information?


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Definitely. They have logic that links data sets, all it takes is one slip up for them to know youre the same person, probably with levels of probability about whether you are the same person.

Indeed. They have lots more data about you that they don't consider to be your data. They think it is their data.

Given the amount of data they possess, if I were in your shoes, I'd assume that yes. Every single service, app, etc owned by them is more than likely to be used to create the most accurate profile about you.

Agreed. What might have been more informative would be to have instead sent them each other's profiles (or all the same profile) and see if they rated them as accurately when applied to themselves.

It's imortant to keep in mind that metadata alone says a lot about a person. Combine that with more precise data from a few people in the same set and you can end up with very accurate data about everybody.

Well, actually, they can, but it depends on what kind of information you're trying to get out of someone.

No, they manipulate their data; that something is about you doesn't make it yours.

I would extend this to include companies like Facebook that study your data to derive deeper insights about you. I want to be entitled to every conclusion they reach about me from my own data, so I can correct whatever assumptions they have about me and possibly learn more about myself.

The idea of some sort of big data / semantic analysis being used to judge my worth is honestly rather reassuring compared to the idea of some hr drone trolling google for my name. A person is likely to unfairly misjudge you based on what they find online, an algorithm is probably a pretty fair judge of character, or if it isn't it isn't going to get used.

They don't mean to grab particular information about every individual. They want to ensure completeness of their data mining results.

How hard was it to pull your own data? What are they looking for to validate you are you?

He knows people, you know people .. do either one of you have actual data?

After downloading my data, I’ve begun to worry not only that they know too much, but that what they ‘know’ about me is quite wrong.

Though the information is also valid to all the folks in the photo who aren't you. Hence they are discovering information about people who have not offered information nor consent to this algorithm.

> theoretically the more they know about you the better search results you will get

Better from whose point of view? ;)


No. If the information is not about the individual, then it isn't useful in evaluating the individual. I know that sounds tautological, but it seems that obvious.

Yes, basically. For example, I've used LinkedIn to double check whether I should trust that an online watch buyer is a real person.

So you're asserting that marketing companies know people better than they know themselves? If that's true, that's incredibly damning of marketing companies and is a great argument for why they should have access to less individualized data about people.

I assume that you also sign up for their services. It's an important part of your business research and is totally legit.

The weirdest thing that ever happened to me was when someone, in same line of work as me, signed up - and he had the same first and last name as mine.

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