we know all about you

In spite of her assertions to the contrary, Amazon insists that Imy is a personal friend of an author whose book she tried to review, but the site won't disclose how it came to this conclusion.

Amazon Is Data Mining Reviewers’ Personal Relationships

Any Amazon customer is likely aware that the e-tail giant knows a lot about them. That’s how it personalizes product suggestions and customizes the marketing e-mails it sends. But some Amazon users are now finding out that the site knows — or at least it thinks it knows — who your friends are, and is restricting their reviews accordingly. [More]

FTC Asks Congress To Require Transparency From Data Brokers

FTC Asks Congress To Require Transparency From Data Brokers

Who would you say knows the most about you? Your family or friends, perhaps? Wrong. You likely have never met – and will never meet – the people who know the most about you: data brokers. These companies follow your every move on- and off-line to collect billions of data points about your life in an attempt to better target you for marketing campaigns and fraud prevention, among other things. [More]

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Tell AT&T You Don’t Want It Selling Info About Your Wireless And U-Verse Usage

Last year, Verizon Wireless ticked off a lot of people when it announced its Precision Market Insights program, which sells supposedly anonymous data about customers’ wireless behavior to marketers. Now AT&T has decided it wants to make money selling this sort of info to third parties, but for both wireless and U-Verse customers. [More]