Cracking the code | Hacker News Reader

Cracking the code

s.wsj.net

82 pointsashitvora22 comments

It seems to me that some of what WSJ shows here goes against RapLeaf's privacy policy.

Specifically: "We don't collect or work with sensitive data on children, health or medical conditions, sexual preferences, financial account information, or religious beliefs."

The WSJ article shows that they are collecting religious beliefs, income, children, and detailed data on how you spend your money.

Seems to me that they are violating this both in spirit and in specific wording.

Might depend on how you define "sensitive."

Your confusing interest with actual data. For example, they don't collect religious beliefs. However, they can collect your interest in Christianity. They don't collect health information, but they can collect your interest in Healthy Eating. They don't collect financial account information, but they do collect general financial information (for example, they don't collect CC data, but do know your general pay grade.

Finally, they qualify everything by saying they don't collect sensitive data, and from the information provided, they don't.

Sounds like doublespeak - how is an "interest" in religeon different from religeous belief?

I don't believe in a God, but am interested in religion and how it affects the world I live in. I see a definite separation between interest and belief.

Sure but you are sticking your head in the sand if you think that that doesn't accurately represent the religious angle of people. If their data says they are interested in the bible, christianity, prayer groups, or whatever, what's more likely, that they are intellectually curious and just doing research? Or that they are just christian?

That's like newspapers running articles saying so-and-so is charged with the rape of whats-her-name. Even if he's later found innocent, he still felt the repercussions. So, where do you draw the line?

More importantly: what's the problem with the data they are presenting? I see no problem ethically or legally, though I'm sure some might feel uncomfortable with the amount of information they've willingly, if unknowingly, shared.

Spliting semantic hairs it seems... Rapleaf is not collecting "interest" data just because they are curious; they are collecting it because the claim they make to their customers is that you interests define you and your intents better than explicitly stated preferences.

That's the oddest way to agree with what I said I've ever seen. But at least you agree.

"Sources: WSJ Research, RapLeaf "segment" document from July, 2010"

The chart does not reflect the currently used of attributes.

I might be missing the point but I think the issue is that the WSJ (and others) are able to extract 'sensitive data' from sites like Rapleaf.

So that might be contrary to Rapleaf's policy but in reality their business model enables the dissemination of so-called sensitive data.

I read another blog post on Rapleaf's site about how they are solving the problem of personal information being moved around the internet mistakenly. Are they not simply devising a solution for a problem they are helping to create?

Again, I might be missing the point...?

> The Wall Street Journal was able to decode 26 of them.

It's not like it's a secret or anything. They act like this chart is something they've discovered.

It does seem to be counter to their mission of "Safe onlining" http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/2010/09/29/safe-onlining/

You can opt out and see what info RapLeaf has on you here: https://www.rapleaf.com/people

I'm amazed, but not necessarily surprised, that they could pin down my income level, location, age, etc. from just my email address.

I tried signing up, only to be told

  Could not complete registration: The captcha was not correct.

Only one problem: there was no captcha. Maybe adblock is working too hard ...

I got this twice, even seeing the captcha. Maybe I'm a robot. Hey....

I registered and verified, only to see this:

  Rapleaf Encountered a Problem.

  Whoops... we've encountered a small problem. Please try again soon!

  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Why do I feel like I've just been taken?

You can opt out of other networks in bulk here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Perhaps Rapleaf is not as powerful as they sound, since they incorrectly think I am about 40 years older than I actually am.

it appears they dont have anything on me (no cookie/javascript blocking, just vanilla chrome) and I do browse extensively. Anyone know why this might be happening?

At least RapLeaf is open enough to show this chart. You can edit your data, and opt out. Far from a perfect system, but let's be practical: nearly every other advertising system is doing exactly the same thing, just without telling you what they have. Some sort of an open advertising cookie seems like a good idea to me. Something that people can customise so that they'll see advertisements somewhat interesting to them.

http://blog.rapleaf.com/dev/

Some interesting blog entries by rapleaf.com

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