Is collecting personal data wrong?

Question

I've noticed a lot of people are against the collecting of personal data even if no human will ever see it.
What should you collect and what shouldn't you collect and if cookies are accepted can i also use the localstorage function?

Answer 1

- Hello! Gordon's pizza?
- No sir it's Google's pizza.

- So it's a wrong number? Sorry 
- No sir, Google bought it.

- OK. Take my order please 
- Well sir, you want the usual?

- The usual? You know me?
- According to our caller ID data sheet, in the last 12 times, you ordered pizzawith cheeses, sausage, thick crust.

- OK! This is it ...
- May I suggest to you this time ricotta, arugula with dry tomato.?

- What? I hate vegetables.
- Your cholesterol is not good, sir.

- How do you know?
- We crossed the number of your fixed line with your name, through the subscribers guide.
We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.

- Okay, but I do not want this pizza!,I already take medicine ...
-Excuse me, but you have not taken the medicine regularly, from our commercial database, 4 months ago, you only purchased a box with 30 cholesterol tablets at Drugsale Network.

- I bought more from another drugstore. 
- It's not showing on your credit card statement 

- I paid in cash 
- But you did not with

Answer 2

The collection of personal data is not wrong. In some systems, it is crucial to do that to deliver proper functionality.

The key here is "consent". Without consent from the user, collecting and storing user data is more or less unethical. There are a lot of reasons why some people may not want their data to be collected and redistributed, but regardless, it is a responsibility for the programmer/developer to provide the user a choice to opt-out.

The common fuss about this issue is with companies found to *appear to* provide this choice, but collects your data anyway (even if you said no).

Answer 3

Mozilla Firefox podcast IRL made an interesting joke experiment. Two guys had a cookie stand in front of a mall and were offering free cookies. Then if people accepted those cookies, they started walking behind them and following them around. People didn't think it was ok for those guys to follow them around just because they took their cookie. But on the internet, it happens all the time! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
And we all know by now, online life is real life 😉

Answer 4

bakitza Lolz thats hilarious 😂😂😂

Answer 5

Mark van Gennip LMAO this is turning into a place for jokes 😂😂😂👌

Answer 6

Recently i was chatting with a friend and i got advertisements about what we where talking about. But honestly it doesn't bother me. I'd rather see advertisements about something i like.

Answer 7

bakitza users know what they are getting into thats why you have to accept cookies. But i do agree that selling data is wrong.

Answer 8

If it's to help me live a better life where I'm healther and happier it's nice. It doesn't affect me if it's done in the background. Also if it helps ad companies get me the products that cater to what I need that's helpful not harmful.
For example instead of seeing McDonald's commericals all the time (I don't like their food so I never go there) I might see ads for salad works. A place where I love the food and it might encourage me to even eat better

Answer 9

kevin I completely agree 👌

Answer 10

You can't know if noone will ever see it. It might be secretly used, or there might be a leak or an attack.

(Oh, yeah, and this is no programming-related question and shouldn't be here.)

Answer 11

Remember Cambridge analytica that used Facebook data that was never intended to be seen by anybody.

Answer 12

Mark van Gennip True, great power comes with great responsibility. But you can't run a website without collecting data these days.

Answer 13

It's not just about ads. Are you OK with your potential employer or bank or the government buying a full profile of you, with all your online searches, which medical conditions you look for, do you read liberal or conservative media, what is your political or sexual preference. They can decide to not give you a loan or a job based on information you think shouldn't matter.

It's not just machines, people absolutely buy and read that information. And collect more than you think - not just about info you give to e.g. FB directly. A little "contact me" Facebook icon on any random website tracks you, even if you never logged into Facebook in your life.

You may be OK with that, but I think it's not so difficult to imagine that there are people who are not.

For those interested in that IRL episode of the Mozilla podcast, check it out here: https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=50585237&refid=asa

Answer 14

And don't get me wrong i'm still against selling data to big companies. But i am looking for a balance here. Not all data collection is about money like google analytics for instance.

Your website might collect data to see what age your average visitors are. Or what country they are from.

Answer 15

HonFu Mark We are developers we make an alternative 😂

It has both sides we choose to use facebook, we choose to use google, we put ads on our own websites and use tools powered by facebook and google. We have the choice.

We are the ones making these companies grow.

Answer 16

Mark true, you helped google collect data from your viewers.

Answer 17

True, these tech giants are taking over because everyone uses them.

Answer 18

Mark Facebook sold data directly to a company without encryption. And thats not ok because they can just read your personal data.

Answer 19

lymkal Machines constantly analyse our data even on sololearn. This is how we find a match on tinder or friends on facebook. It would be creepy and inefficient if this was a person analysing our data. Also that company would get sued.

Answer 20

bakitza That's true, facebook made some mistakes in the past. I think that you should not sell the data but use it to improve your service. Mark zuckerberg has been in court for this and i don't think they still do this. Like Mark said.