Opt Out of Acxiom Marketing Data Collection | Hacker News Reader

Opt Out of Acxiom Marketing Data Collection

isapps.acxiom.com

32 pointsobiefernandez21 comments

This sure seems like a scam to me. In order to remove data they wan't me to give them a ton of information about myself that they supposedly don't have otherwise they wouldn't be asking for it.

If they don't have any of this then they already don't have anything useful about me that I'd care to have removed. They would probably just take this info to create a more complete profile about who I am.

All they're asking for is name, number, meatspace and email addresses. Presumably, it's so some guy named "John Smith" doesn't prevent them from collecting information on the thousands of other J.S.'s out there.

Not saying I feel comfortable filling out the form myself, but still. It's silly to expect that just a name or email tells them everything about you.

That's the point, both of them in fact. It's likely that to error on side if caution they rarely in fact do find and purge all your associated "identities" / records..

So why are they even bothering? Especially since they could collect much less while greatly increasing safe purge of your records if they wanted to. Targeting people for advertising is not a cursory half assed random thing to advertisers. It's their bread and butter. Why is this link even on hn?

I'd have to concur. I have a lot of experience and first hand knowledge targeting and identifying unique us voters(for good, or at least not republicans)and the big tell that this is bullshit is the one crucial piece of data they don't ask for other than name: DOB.

I can't get too detailed with things but they're either a scan or they're going to do a very poor matching job and likely not remove very many people successfully. Not enough for this to not kind of feel very wasteful.

I'm under impression advertising data middlemen or "wizards of" are quite a bit more sophisticated than their questions would lead you to believe.. So yeah scratch that.

My conclusion now this is either a scam or done in bad faith for some reason that we aren't aware of yet.

Why is this opt-out in particular of interest to people?

They're one of the largest, most secretive data brokers out there. That's why. A lot of data passes through them and out to many other parties.

That doesn't really answer the question. Why would you opt out of marketing data collection? I'm going to be bombarded with ads online either way; might as well make them as relevant as possible, right?

I don't like being advertised to or manipulated, and by studying market segments they often try to "fit me" into certain profiles (good luck with that). I've already gotten spam emails because my data was sold that didn't respect my Unsubscribe requests. That's why I use Adblock/Disconnect/HTTPSB, etc, to avoid most advertising and building that profile (if I can). If someone has unobtrusive, inoffensive, non-targeted ads I would be fine displaying them. And removing my profile from data brokers so that it stops getting sold and I stop getting hassled would be a huge boon.

In my mind, my privacy is my decision—and collection without my informed consent is something I take as a serious offense against me. If I want to share information about myself, then I'll share and that's what you get. Companies building profiles and sharing/selling them behind my back isn't good for their relations with me. I'd be just as offended having a private eye snooping into it as I would the NSA or my neighbors, or Acxiom. Data brokers, et al, I view as opponents these days.

(good luck with that)

Reminds me of the time a few years ago that Google gave me a few ads for bow resin after I signed up to the cello-dev mailing list.

i got fertility treatment ads after looking up how to freeze eggs (the cooking kind).

Interesting, they discuss both Opt-Out and Removal of your information. They explain about the Opt-Out process, but mention nothing about how to get your information removed.

Anyone have an idea on how to get your info removed or if the opt-out does that for you?

(Someone should build a list of these data brokers and their opt-out/removal policies and pages.)

Here is a good one: http://www.stopdatamining.me/

Thanks. That is a useful resource.

And yet they use Google Analytics.

Heh, I worked with Axciom's API at one point.. it was terrible. SOAP API with out-of-date and error prone documentation, and wildly inaccurate information on any phone number I tried.

I'd feel better if I didn't get "This certificate was signed by an unknown authority"

You have a serious problem. The valid site is signed with a valid Entrust certificate. https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=isapps.acxiom...

Are you at work or on a coffee shop network where SSL traffic might be intercepted?

I actually get the exact same response. I presume that youngtaff is probably behind a corporate firewall like I am which has the ability to be a man in the middle for SSL sessions. Zero expectation of privacy at my workplace.

I seemed to get the same error using 3G-data on my android phone.... I don't think EE(uk) tries MITMing web browsing, but I wouldn't put it past them...

I ran the Qualsys SSL Labs test on the site[0]. It reports an incomplete chain; that is, the server doesn't supply the intermediate certificate required (Entrust Certification Authority - L1C) to bridge the gap between the site's certificate and the Entrust certificate in most browser/OS stores.

This intermediate certificate must instead be downloaded by the browser. I suspect, therefore, that some browsers do not have the intermediate certificate and so the certificate cannot be validated.

[0] https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=isapps.acxiom...

The intermediate cert should be requested from the server - might take a peak with wireshark if I've got time later.

I work for a security company so have zero expectations of privacy when I'm on the corporate network (which I was here) but I also see the same issue on both 3 and EE in the UK.

I don't generally see issues like this on the corporate network so there's something different about this case.

Of course Acxiom really should serve the site and intermediate certificates together to reduce round-trips and speed up the handshake.

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