Why Are Gay Bars Building Databases of Their Patrons?
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Now I can't help but think of all the nefarious owners - maybe it's some non-profit in Isreal, or has funding from China, or is run by the Russian mafia. Nothing seems to be genuine anymore, and every now and then there's some giant scandal that proves it all right. What's left of America. And everyone's asking for more privacy, but I fear the nefarious owner class that has allegiance to some other country is also asking for more privacy.
It's like the same answer to the question why did ads appear so quickly on the internet in the 90s. It's just that they found new ways to monetize seemingly random / normal everyday things.
Absolutely. I have no idea how that process has evolved over time. For all I know maybe they use Axiom/Flock to do this now but back in my day it was all closed circuit and heavily protected information. Even doing a records request on someone would not disclose this information as their sole purpose was to identify national security risks.
There were lots of institutions decades ago that were not what they presented themselves publicly as being, in one form or another; the difference was that the alternative media outlets that would have allowed interested people to disseminate this information widely were less developed than they are today.
They share, collaborate and collude and it all strips away your rights. Similar for so many large merchants and the alternative is to pay 10-20% more (or more) for smaller shops. That said, Amazon has gotten so bad with opportunistic pricing that they're sometimes more expensive than the alternatives anyway.