Re: [LUG] Youtube History

On 19 October 2015 at 16:05, Neil Winchurst <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I do get annoyedÂ at the way that so many sites expect you to provide,
to me, quite unnecessary personal information. If you try to set up an
account for ITV player, for example, it is free to use, but they want a
full address, including Post Code, a phone number, date of birth and I
can't remember what else. Why, for heaven's sake? It's a free service.

Nothing's free.

At the risk of the obvious, and some assumptions:

Data mining like this is the main way they get paid. ITV's model is to provide content that brings enough people so that advertisers think it's worth paying ITV to sell adverts - whether it's on web, another digital channel - or on tv.Â

Your personal information is much more valuable to them for that primary purpose.Â

"Hey, advertisers, look at this guy!

He's X-Y years old. His income bracket it XX-YY. He's married to Mrs X and has 1.8 children of age range X-Y.

He lives in Devon, and the average house price in his postcode is ÂX. We also know he's much more likely to be a homeowner than not, and will probably vote for X at the next election. Their income is in the X-Y range, they like cats and support cat charities in preference to others. They enjoy medical drama shows and the odd bit of lowbrow trashy reality tv. They do their main weekly food shop at X, but also buy clothes at Y and are regular online buyers at Z.Â

We have XX_Lots of people in this demographic, you should really use us to use your advertising budget. We're really good at helping you find the right customers for your product."

We all know we're marketed and milked. But all of us, including cynical old me with my toe in a section of that market from the other POV would be surprised quite how much is known about us even by someone as small scale as ITV. They'll use that information you give them and pay other people with other databases some money to enrich it (such as Experion who have a lot of profiling services) and build on it and within a second will have a fairly complete picture about you.Â

And then they'll sell it on to anyone that pays them. And then they'll sell it on. It's worth a lot of money to those who think it's useful.

(Don't start me on the DPA and what people think it does to protect their info - chances are it doesn't protect you as much as you think it does)

So don't be surprised when you're asked to provide this info. It's your choice whether it's worth the service you're trying to access of course. But that info's probably out there already, we leak huge amounts of personal info every day. (Unless we're particularly well disciplined and obsessively careful)

And I do love Martin's suggestion of filling in their own address. :)