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Old 19-02-2008, 13:12   #75
melevittfl
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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Re: Virgin Media Ad Deal - Would you be opting out?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart C View Post

The phorm system relies on a random number which, for their tracking to work would have to be stored somewhere, with records of what that users has browsed (I know the site doesn't state this, but it's the only way I can see that such a system would target the ads). The ISP would store the random number, as well as personal details (such as CM Mac address and even account details). Someone with a modicum of hacking skills (or even someone who found dodgy employees in both companies) could obtain access to both these databases.
Actually, it's worse than that. In 2006 AOL accidently released data on what their customers search for over a three month period. They assigned each customer a random number to hid their identity.

However, just by looking at all the searches that, say 2343453 did in a week, it was possible to determine people's personal information in many cases.

For example, I might visit the website for my local town, then my bank, then a website that uses my username as part of the URL. Now they know where I live, what bank I use and at least one alias. A quick google search might find other places where my alias is used along with my real name, etc.

If you want to read about what happened with AOL, there's a good article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/te...08cnd-aol.html

So, there doesn't need to be any collusion between both companies. The data provides enough information for people to discover identities.

---------- Post added at 12:12 ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Akia View Post
I'm not bothered by it.
Not bothered by loosing your privacy?

Care to post how much you earn and where you live?
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