Inspired by a question I saw a while back, is it possible to make my data/online presence useless/undesirable to companies to purchase?
E-commerce vet here. It’s easier just to try and not give out that data and to pay to have it scrubbed. But, this thought experiment is fun, so here’s how you’d make your targeting data complete trash.
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The most valuable thing about your data is your behavior and demographic characteristics, not your identity.
When you fill out forms, pretend your gender, race, and age is fluid. Also, pretend you’re nomadic. Then behave erratic as fuck online - pay for bibles, butt plugs, taxidermy, and PETA donations
Your data will be absolute trash. You’ll also be miserable because you’re going to be visiting the Amazon drop off center with gag balls and porcelain Jesus figurines every week.
Sure. Wiggle your mouse, introduce randomness into your typing, and read about things you’re not interested in. It doesn’t matter though as they’ll still sell your info.
They already exist. AdNauseam is a good example of that - it clicks advertisement links for you so it’s harder to know what you’re into.
Plus, if advertisers are paying for cost-per-click, it’s costing them money for each ad that is clicked on
You’re still generating data that will be sold. I doubt most companies do any sort of deep analysis on the data when they can just throw it at an algorithm and let it do it’s thing
I don’t fully agree with the approach, and I also think that generating no data is better in this case, but the reasoning is that the data being generated contains so much noise that it’s useless for profiling. Or even poisonous, since it might create associations that don’t exist (e.g. selling dildos to zealots, or advertising books on quantum mechanics to pet owners). As such, its attractiveness and thus selling value decreases.
No. People are always going to pay for your data even if you make it incorrect.
It’s impossible to make your data completely unattractive to purchase but using something like the adnauseum extension on your browser can make your data less useful when it has been purchased.
