Interessant is nu dat de New York Times gisteren een stuk publiceerde over Acxiom:
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data “transactions” a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.Dit is dus het soort bedrijf waar Deaver het over heeft in Broken Window...
But privacy advocates say they are more troubled by data brokers’ ranking systems, which classify some people as high-value prospects, to be offered marketing deals and discounts regularly, while dismissing others as low-value — known in industry slang as “waste.”En Deaver lijkt niets te hebben verzonnen...
Exclusion from a vacation offer may not matter much, says Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in San Diego, but if marketing algorithms judge certain people as not worthy of receiving promotions for higher education or health services, they could have a serious impact.
“Over time, that can really turn into a mountain of pathways not offered, not seen and not known about,” Ms. Dixon says.
But the catalog also offers delicate information that has set off alarm bells among some privacy advocates, who worry about the potential for misuse by third parties that could take aim at vulnerable groups. Such information includes consumers’ interests — derived, the catalog says, “from actual purchases and self-reported surveys” — like “Christian families,” “Dieting/Weight Loss,” “Gaming-Casino,” “Money Seekers” and “Smoking/Tobacco.” Acxiom also sells data about an individual’s race, ethnicity and country of origin. “Our Race model,” the catalog says, “provides information on the major racial category: Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, or Asians.” Competing companies sell similar data.Tenslotte een plaatje uit een Acxiom-presentatie van 'n jaar of twee geleden. Als ik het goed begrijp, werken Acxiom en Google sinds een tijdje samen.:
“DO you really know your customers?” Acxiom asks in marketing materials for its shopper recognition system, a program that uses ZIP codes to help retailers confirm consumers’ identities — without asking their permission.
“Simply asking for name and address information poses many challenges: transcription errors, increased checkout time and, worse yet, losing customers who feel that you’re invading their privacy,” Acxiom’s fact sheet explains. In its system, a store clerk need only “capture the shopper’s name from a check or third-party credit card at the point of sale and then ask for the shopper’s ZIP code or telephone number.” With that data Acxiom can identify shoppers within a 10 percent margin of error, it says, enabling stores to reward their best customers with special offers. Other companies offer similar services.
Tja, dan kan Hildebrandt nog wel 26 extra aanbevelingen doen die in lijn met Scully en Pasanek stellen dat veronderstellingen geëxpliciteerd moeten worden, dat transparantie nodig is enzovoort enzoverder. Maar het schip is al uit de haven...
Aanvulling, 19 juni 2012, 14:20 uur
Ondertussen heeft Christian de lezing van Hildebrandt uitgebreid en uitstekend samengevat: Lezen of gelezen worden op afstand #kvan12
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Plaatje: Axiom, "the jewel of the BnL-fleet"
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