> I do not see problems with fake ad clicks and have no sympathy for ad companies.
Yeah, it's like—a cheap streaming stick AND it poisons the advertising well? I'm pretty happy with my Fire TV Stick, but they're really tempting me here.
Yeah, it's like—a cheap streaming stick AND it poisons the advertising well? I'm pretty happy with my Fire TV Stick, but they're really tempting me here.
Keep in mind that it's your IP and identity associated with those clicks and anything else criminals decide to do with your IP address. That means you're identity is being linked to things you may or not want to be known as being interested/involved in. The ads your TV stick clicks on can cause data brokers to include your name in lists of people who are heavily into drugs, have mental disorders, belong to certain religions or political parties, etc. All of that can come back to haunt you later.
Depending on what other activity your connection is used for as a proxy it can also get you in trouble with the police or with your ISP.
What you do on the internet has very real impacts on your life offline and it's going to happen more and more over time. AI will make it easier for companies to leverage the massive amounts of data avilable to them about you. Surveillance pricing is spreading. Consumer reputation services are spreading. Law enforcement is buying up data from data brokers. Extremists are using data brokers to decide who to target with violence.
Nobody cares if the data they have isn't 100% accurate. The data broker doesn't care. He gets paid either way. The companies buying your data don't care either. It's all a numbers game to them. They just have to be right enough times to justify the cost of the data.
None of the data being collected about you ever goes away. It doesn't matter if the data comes from you. or your backdoored streaming stick, the more data they have associated with you, the more opportunists exist for you to be screwed over by it.
It's almost impossible for a person to know when or how their offline life is being influenced because of the dossiers containing their online activity, but it absolutely impacts the prices you pay, the policies businesses will tell you they have, the opportunities you are offered, and even how long companies leave you on hold when you call them on the phone.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/data-brokers-selling-personal-i...
https://web.archive.org/web/20191130221040/https://www.nytim...
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/s41272-019-002...
https://www.mccarter.com/insights/ftc-surveillance-pricing-s...
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/17/6294415...
https://nypost.com/2022/12/20/how-employers-spy-on-your-sear...
https://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/16/data-mining-is-now-used-to-s...
https://www.wired.com/story/minnesota-lawmaker-shootings-peo...
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-data-brokers-are-a-threa...
https://sites.sanford.duke.edu/techpolicy/wp-content/uploads...
https://epic.org/data-broker-helped-anti-abortion-group-targ...
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nsa-purchases-americans-int...
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2014/04/...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-...
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/senate-votes-to-...
https://www.vice.com/en/article/data-brokers-netflow-data-te...
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/debunking-myth-anonymo...
The article says that health insurance companies are buying data from data brokers and using algorithms to set prices according to what you do online and what your "personal interests are".
It makes no difference if you run a residential proxy or not, using your browsing history (or your streaming stick's browsing history) data brokers will give insurance companies information that can be used to set your health insurance rates. The more clicks made over your internet connection, the more data they have to make assumptions about you with.
Remember, you asked for evidence that "any of this ever happened to anyone". There are also links showing that employers are buying up data based on your online activity and using it for hiring decisions, that the prices for things you buy are determined by your online activity, that what you do online has real world impacts on your life offline, and that extremists are using data brokers to identify targets.
You know this argument works for everything, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proving_too_much
Do you buy processed food from the grocery store? You know that makes your insurance go up, right?