Data collecting. When it is sold on, what are other companies doing with it?

[lightand]

It now seems big business.
When our data is harvested and sold on, what do other companies do with that information?

I get that supermarkets want to know what brand of baked beans we buy, but what do other companies do with that information?
What are they interested in about us? It cant be just that.

Political targeting. Brexit & Trump-campaigns both did this heavily.

I mean, I doubt they used supermarket data exactly, but they used 'Like' on Facebook and algorithms on cookies to find likely voters & target ads at them.

I heard about monitoring shop visits (Tesco Clubcard data) in context of covid pandemic, to see if people really visited supermarket less often or if they bought more of certain types of products which might indicate state of mind, alcohol consumption, or if someone in the house was expecting a baby.

So sort of like a census, but much more detailed and ongoing up to date info?

The political targeting - so when we are on social media, even MN, and when we click on any online website, or buy something online, all information is collected?

I am not sure I was joining up all the dots until now.

It looks like the majority of us dont know, [or a few people may not want to say], what happens to the data about us, once it is sold on to who knows which, worldwide companies.

Your data is valuable primarily to people who want to sell you something by knowing what else you have bought, or to see trends in behaviour which will help them to sell something (whether that is a political ideology or a shampoo)
Every website or social media you use has to, by law, tell you exactly what it does with the data it collects about you and/or your use of the site. It’s just that not very many people pay attention to that information. This, for instance, is the mumsnet privacy policy:
www.mumsnet.com/info/privacy-policy
When the thing pops up on a website saying ‘we use cookies’ it usually asks you to ‘accept all’ or ‘choose’. If you pick ‘choose’ you can refuse to allow targeted adverts, etc. So the law is there to give you some control over how your data is used but you need to exercise that control to benefit from it. And of course companies do attempt to bend or otherwise get round it.

www.wired.com/story/wired-guide-personal-data-collection/

This is a useful overview. There are lots of uses though- programmatic advertising, understanding consumers, training AI and machine learning models, decision algorithms- there are tons of uses.

Whoa

That link is incredible. It is a US link by the looks of things, but no reason to think most of it doesnt go on in the UK.
It takes some time to take all that lot in.

If you send a saliva sample in the US, other people buy the remainder, or buy the details? I need to reread to make sure I am reading things correctly. And assuming the link is correct of course.

That link is soooo much more than people seem to think is happening with their readily given up and collected data.
Though looks like it has been going on for decades anyway, even before the advent of the internet.

The data collection companies[who must employ thousands of people worldwide I assume] must have employees on confidentiality agreements.

I am always suspect of things that are hidden. Things are always hidden for a reason.

These parts stand out for me[need to bear in mind it is a US link, and I havent personally had a look into whether any of it is definitely 100% true]

Personal data is used by algorithms to make incredibly important decisions, like whether someone should maintain their health care benefits, or be released on bail. Those decisions can easily be biased, and researchers and companies like Google are now working to make algorithms more transparent and fair

and

Before we can figure out the future of personal data collection, we need to learn more about its present. The cascade of privacy scandals that have come to light in recent years—from Cambridge Analytica to Google’s shady location tracking practices—have demonstrated that users still don’t know all the ways their information is being sold, traded, and shared. Until consumers actually understand the ecosystem they’ve unwittingly become a part of, we won’t be able to grapple with it in the first place

and

Your Smartphone Choice Could Determine Whether You Get a Loan
In Europe, some lenders are using passive signals, like what kind of phone you have, to determine whether you should qualify for a loan. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests those indicators can predict consumer behavior as accurately as traditional credit scores. But these factors aren’t necessarily ones consumers are aware of or know to change^