Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Privacy Businesses The Almighty Buck The Internet

Report: Internet Users Feel Powerless To Protect Their Privacy From Corporations 236

Mark Wilson writes: A paper produced by a team at the University of Pennsylvania confirms something many people have probably thought true for some time: the notion that internet users are unhappy with the way their privacy is undermined by advertisers and online companies, yet feel there is nothing they can do about it. While marketing companies like to present an image of customers who are happy to hand over personal information in return for certain benefits, the truth is rather different. Rather than dedicating time and energy to trying to stop personal data from being exploited, people are instead taking it on the chin and accepting it as part and parcel of modern, online life. It's just the way things are.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Report: Internet Users Feel Powerless To Protect Their Privacy From Corporations

Comments Filter:
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Is the article implying that there IS a way to protect our privacy? How?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:31PM (#49863417)

      If you want to preserve your privacy, then DON'T PUT PICTURES OF YOUR COCK ONLINE!

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        That's only an issue if your penis can identify you, right? That is, if other people have seen it. This being slashdot, I don't think most of us have to worry about that.

        However, if by cock you meant rooster, what's the big deal?

      • by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @07:33PM (#49863669)

        If you want to preserve your privacy, then DON'T PUT PICTURES OF YOUR COCK ONLINE!

        As we discovered in the John Oliver interview with Edward Snowden, it's the NSA's job to put pictures of your cock online, not yours!

      • by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Monday June 08, 2015 @01:19AM (#49864795) Homepage Journal

        That's probably the least of your or my problem. It just shows that you are a narcissist, but if you want to make a fool out of yourself you are welcome.

        A much larger problem is the ability for corporations without my consent track my patterns on the internet and can therefore be able to connect me to political opinions, sexual preferences and which bank(s) I use and possibly also my bank account number and credit card numbers.

        Disabling of third-party cookies do help to some extent, enforcing session-based cookies as well, but not completely. AdBlock can also help a bit. At least it blurs the image of me on the net a bit for the information gatherers.

        All those sites like "doubleclick", "tradedoubler" and similar - they don't provide me as a user with any benefits at all. And there are a massive amount of such sites and very few are in the default blocklist of AdBlock.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          For the technically apt nerd, the solution is RequestPolicy [requestpolicy.com] which is a granular domain-based request control plugin for Firefox. You can set it to block all cross domain requests by default and then selectively enable those that are part of the site's functionality. Unfortunately, with the advent of CDNs and whatnot, most websites (such as Slashdot) will be entirely broken and making them work will require a fair bit of knowledge of how the web operates under the hood in some cases.

          • It is not primarily an ad blocker, but as most ads are served via JavaScript, not allowing domains like ad.doubleclick.something will greatly reduce the flood of unwanted ads and scripts.

            The RequestPolicy website also recommends NoScript as additional measure BTW.

            • I'll double up the recommendation of NoScript. In addition to what it actually does, it gives you quite a bit of information that's really an eye opener. There's hardly a web site out there these days that doesn't run scripts from at least a half-dozen domains. Some of them are up to 20. It's almost never more than 1 or 2 of the domains which actually belong to the owners of the site, the rest are third parties. Your data is getting spread far and wide each pageload.

              Initially I thought it'd be too much o
      • If you must refrain from exercising a right or priviledge in order to preserve that right or priviledge, then you don't have that right or priviledge.

    • Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:53PM (#49863505)
      "How?"

      Realize that the Internet is not the web. Install an ad/tracking blocker. Avoid, or delete your accounts on Facebook/Google/Apple/"social media". Pay for a domain(s), and use different email addresses for different accounts. Use a VPN. Regularly clear cookies in your browser. Vote for politicians who "get it," and truly understand the Internet, surveillance and privacy.

      Donate to the the EFF [eff.org].

      There's more, which is left as an exercise for the reader.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Realize that the Internet is not the web.

        How 90s of you. Nowadays it's "Facebook isn't the web".

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Don't trust things that are free, as a given. If you can't play that nifty game/app of the month on your phone/tablet/computer with internet turned off, then you need to rethink your download.

        TANSTAFL

      • You missed the point.

        Consumers don't want to fuck with your suggestions. They just want to do their particular thing and be safe.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        These methods are not effective, and ultimately they are doomed. The reasons are obvious:

        1) Their incentive to track us is stronger than our incentive to resist.
        2) Not enough people will do these things, so tracking will continue to be profitable, hence will continue to be done.
        3) You have no moral nor legal right to privacy when engaging in business transactions.
        4) Their lobbyists are better funded than yours.

        You can create some friction by resisting, but mostly the only one feeling the heat will be you.

      • by Burz ( 138833 )

        "How?"

        Realize that the Internet is not the web. Install an ad/tracking blocker. Avoid, or delete your accounts on Facebook/Google/Apple/"social media". Pay for a domain(s), and use different email addresses for different accounts. Use a VPN. Regularly clear cookies in your browser. Vote for politicians who "get it," and truly understand the Internet, surveillance and privacy.

        Donate to the the EFF [eff.org].

        There's more, which is left as an exercise for the reader.

        Add 'HTTPS Everywhere' extension to the list also.

        A list of tracker blockers:
        Disconnect
        Blur
        Ghostery

        A 'public' VPN like privateinternetaccess.com will give you more anonymity than a VPN you run yourself.

        Fingerprinting is an issue that I don't believe any of the above extensions address. Techies like us can have pretty unique browser fingerprints due to Linux and unusual plugins. These two extensions mask the unique information about browser software:

      • The only problem I've run across in using your own domain for email is that some places won't accept an email address using an "unknown" domain when creating an account. Case in point, Guitar World magazine, apparently they'll only accept accounts with an email from an ISP, or from Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail. It took me a few attempts to figure that out, because they won't even tell you why they won't send a registration activation email to that address.
        • by msauve ( 701917 )
          So, if you own company "joesguitarstore.com" and want to use your work email, you're screwed? Sounds like a company to not do business with, because they're obviously customer hostile.
          • Well, I wouldn't call it doing business with them, I just wanted to be able to post on their forums and make comments on articles, but yeah, it's a pain in the arse.
            I would assume it's their way of combating spambots but they're too heavy-handed with that approach.
    • by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @07:28PM (#49863643)

      Is the article implying that there IS a way to protect our privacy? How?

      (1) Hack the company's servers
      (2) Delete the data they have collected
      (3) Hope the do not detect the intrusion before their rolling backups overwrite their pervious backups which include your data
      (4) ???
      (5) Profit!

      Not that this is really recommended; they are bigger than you, legally speaking.

  • and those Facebook pictures.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Herman Munster at 1313 Mockingbird Lane is probably less than pleased with me though.

    • I notice the ads on Slashdot in the the "AdChioces"/Google slots are recommending my local bank and other sites I've been exploring recently... that's more effective than the Web 1.0 sponsors.

      Slashdot used to have tech companies in those slots, now it runs general interest or your interest ads.

    • The correct answer is Rusty Shakleford.

    • by jetkust ( 596906 )
      Then they will just take your info. What's your next move?
  • by x0ra ( 1249540 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:27PM (#49863397)
    Everybody expect free services. Nobody want to pay for anything, and they all expect privacy. Maybe it's time to wake up. Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple are not charities, they are for-profit companies. They must find way to monetize their users' data. At the same time, Facebook probably wouldn't have been if it had been paywall'ed.
    • by Scutter ( 18425 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:34PM (#49863427) Journal

      There are plenty of paid products where you, the consumer and purchaser, are still treated like a commodity. Just because you handed over money for it doesn't mean you won't be sold to the highest bidder. It's easy to just say "wake up", but I suspect that you missed the point.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Yea, when my ISP is selling out my data even if I don't use any of those services, and most marketplaces I may buy at share data and sell it, it really just does seem pretty tough to stay away. Even on a new computer that I haven't logged into anything on, a simple serach for a product an Amazon will show in banner ads to months. You definitely get the feeling that without going fairly far out of your way with VPN, destructing cookies, special browsers, etc that you're pretty well tracked. I can do that

    • by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:44PM (#49863467) Journal

      Everybody expect free services. Nobody want to pay for anything, and they all expect privacy. Maybe it's time to wake up. Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple are not charities, they are for-profit companies. They must find way to monetize their users' data. At the same time, Facebook probably wouldn't have been if it had been paywall'ed.

      And yet Facebook/Google make most their profits on users data. Apple sells hardware/software mainly and Amazon is just trying to be the goto place for everything.

      I think the problem is, we aren't getting a good enough return on the data we are giving them. I don't feel my data has done anything to improve my life or online services, but I sure as fuck know there are a lot of people living the cushy life by selling mine & others user data.

      While google does provide some services, not exactly sure anyone is getting there money's worth using them.

      • Amazon lowers the market price on things without you noticing. They recently announced that they're getting a better deal on shipping wires and such, so they can lower the prices of wires at Amazon Prime, and that should result in Best Buy lowering their prices similarly because their $10 minimum wire cost is based on Amazon's price.

        You might not feel like you're beating the market, but you're beating the past prices on a lot of things there.

        • Amazon lowers the market price on things without you noticing. They recently announced that they're getting a better deal on shipping wires and such, so they can lower the prices of wires at Amazon Prime, and that should result in Best Buy lowering their prices similarly because their $10 minimum wire cost is based on Amazon's price.

          You might not feel like you're beating the market, but you're beating the past prices on a lot of things there.

          Yes, because they're screwing over their "partners." They make agreements not to poach certain products and then go in and come in right under their partners' prices on every other product. They're chasing margins, which is good short-term for value but forces all competition out of business. Ebay is the only competitor to amazon out there and they're not even trying to put themselves in the same class.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        The only answer is to actively poison you data with things like 'Track Me Not' https://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/ [nyu.edu]. Plus false information in social media (obviously good not bad false information), run public and private social media and public real name, private only a nick name close friends and some family members know. It is way easier to poison undesirable information about you than to get rid of it. So don't forget a specific junk mail web site as a trial period for new registers and have fun with fictit

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I think we need clearer language for talking about this. Does Google actually sell your user data? Well, kinda, depending on your definition...

        They sell advertising based on your web searches and the content of your email. They don't sell your actual data, they sell access to keywords that they extract from it but don't give to the advertisers. So I'd say that isn't selling your personal data, in the same way that if I visit any random web site they can look at the search terms I used (from the referrer hea

    • Everybody expect free services. Nobody want to pay for anything, and they all expect privacy. Maybe it's time to wake up. Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple are not charities, they are for-profit companies. They must find way to monetize their users' data.

      Technically, there is no "must" there. They must find a way to monetize their users in order to remain in business, and yes, this often involves monetization through advertising. But non-targeted advertising, while less valuable than targeted, still has a non-zero value. Targeting is just a means of maximizing the profits that they will be getting from their advertisers.

      • Restricting it to people that sign up would be a huge step in the right direction. Realizing that there needs to be actual consent and ability to control the data used would help as well.

        Right now it's an arms race and ads wind up blocked completely in part because of the spying.
        Targeted ads to the content should be sufficient. Tracking where I go ensures that I will never willingly click on an ad.

      • But non-targeted advertising, while less valuable than targeted, still has a non-zero value. Targeting is just a means of maximizing the profits that they will be getting from their advertisers.

        Not really. Targeting is harder and more expensive to do well than non-targeting. Advertisers really don't care whether they're buying targeted or untargeted advertising, they just want a good return for their advertising spend... it's the same to them whether their dollar of ad spend that generates two dollars of revenue is doing it by displaying a dozen carefully targeted ads or ten thousand untargeted ads.

        All of this means that advertisers and on-line ad services are just as happy to use and deliver, r

  • Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I use Firefox with the following add-ons: AdBlock (no whitelist), Better Privacy, Google Analytics Opt Out, HTTPS-Everywhere, Noscript, Privacy Badger and Self-Destructing Cookies.
  • Really? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why would they feel powerless... When they are already essentially willingly giving out their personal information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media services...

    • Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @07:00PM (#49863531)

      Willingly? Hardly. But it gets increasingly hard to avoid these things.

      By now you have companies that check your FB account. And if you don't have one and they can't find anything about you, they won't even consider you. Because, hey, if you don't have FB, you probably have to hide something, and we don't want you!

      It's also getting increasingly hard to sign up for anything without FB because companies offload the work of holding an account for you to FB or other such "services".

      And it's getting worse.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Willingly? Hardly. But it gets increasingly hard to avoid these things.

        By now you have companies that check your FB account. And if you don't have one and they can't find anything about you, they won't even consider you. Because, hey, if you don't have FB, you probably have to hide something, and we don't want you!

        So glad I don't live in your country. I don't have FB - because I cannot be bothered. I have other uses for my time! Still, a company googling my name will find lots of information, as I don't live anonymously on the Internet. I usually use my full name, no nicknames/handles. And if they don't find what they want - they can ask during the interview.

        I honestly cannot understand why a facebook account could be important during hiring. (Other than NOT having something really dubious there.) If "no facebook" me

        • What? You didn't like Facebook? What kind of antisocial weirdo are you? We don't want you in our company!

      • by TapeCutter ( 624760 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @08:00PM (#49863771) Journal
        Yes willingly, nobody has a fucking gun to your head to use this stuff, lack of willpower in a toy store is not "oppression".There's no trickery in any of this, you voluntarily (and often eagerly) sign up for a service and pay for what you use in either dollars, eyeballs, rabbit skins, whatever. Bitching about the privacy costs of of a FB account is like bitching about the electricity bill while sitting in an air-conditioned room, it will always be modded up because people hate paying bills.

        Of course government spying is a whole different ball of wax, nobody signed up for that!
        • by Anonymous Coward

          Spoken like somebody that is a complete loser.

          I've paid a huge price personally and professionally over the years for not having an Internet presence. Most networking is done online and most people can't be bothered to keep in contact by anything other than Facebook.

          Yes nobody is technically forced to, but there is an ever increasing cost of opting out and I'm not sure how long I'm going to be able to afford to.

          • What you call networking we call advertising.I'm betting business use FB because it allows them free advertising. We sure know they couldn't give a rats ass about my family reunion except to advertise a product i might be able to use at it. lol and no i am not a FB member.
        • Of course government spying is a whole different ball of wax, nobody signed up for that!

          The majority claim to want change, but the incumbent is re-elected the majority of the time. Either every election is massively fraudulent, which seems unlikely, or the majority is full of shit — and very much did sign up for government spying, bringing the rest of us with them.

          • Either every election is massively fraudulent, which seems unlikely, or the majority is full of shit — and very much did sign up for government spying, bringing the rest of us with

            Except for the elections where there are only two candidates and both are pro spying, so you're fucked no matter who you choose.

            You are setting up a false dichotomy here that implies that the majority could in fact vote for someone who would stop the spying. Alas, that just doesn't seem to be true these days.

            When both sides are invested in propping up the status quo, everybody loses.

        • Yes willingly, nobody has a fucking gun to your head to use this stuff, lack of willpower in a toy store is not "oppression".

          The parent said Facebook is becoming a condition for employment. Employment is not voluntary in this economic system. It's not "willpower" in a "toy store" that's the issue, it's being able to pay for food and rent.

          Bitching about the privacy costs of of a FB account is like bitching about the electricity bill while sitting in an air-conditioned room, it will always be modded up becau

        • If it was just for convenience. But we're getting to the point where companies use FB in their hiring process. No FB account, no job. A more apt comparison of your claim people don't like paying bills is someone bitching about the rising gas prices while driving to and from work. He CANNOT do without the car. He has no alternative. He could move closer to his working place. Or he could find a job closer to home. But if that is your answer, I have an answer to end government spying on you effectively: Find a

  • in other news... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:40PM (#49863453)

    Internet users by the hundreds of millions give all their personal communications to online ad companies, including Google and Facebook. They have cheerfully gone from running their own mail programs to using Gmail or Ymail for everything. They gladly blab the private details of their lives, with photos, to Facebook and Twitter. They kept visiting signs once banner ads started... and then ran javascript from ad companies. They fall all over themselves every time there's a new service that vacuums up all their data, when there's no reason for that data to leave their own computer.

    Sorry, internet users, but fuck you. The internet didn't used to be like this. You are the ones who supported turning the fucking thing from a true peer to peer network into a centralized, data-mined clusterfuck of overcommercialization and profiling. I don't want to hear how you don't like it. You made all the choices that led here.

    OK, to be fair: not every last one of you. But enough that those who didn't were a rounding error and could be ignored.

    • by grumling ( 94709 )

      Exactly, however it seems the acceptable business model is to sell eyeballs, not product. The first company that can provide me the same product as Gmail (ubiquitous email across multiple devices, all updated in real time), without the tracking and forced advertising gets my money. But anyone coming to a VC meeting with a pay-for-play product is going to be laughed out of the room.

  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @06:49PM (#49863485)

    So the Facebook generation that demands every online service be priced at how-fucking-dare-you-charge-me-for-this is now claiming there's nothing that can be done about the privacy they blindly signed away 473 EULAs ago.

    Oh, that's rich.

    Don't worry though. If you thought this was bad, I'm certain IoT will make these privacy concerns look like a 12-year old boy with a telescope.

  • It's one thing that your supermarket knows what food stuffs you bought recently. And a local sports store knows what socks & running shoes you bought recently. And a local electronics store knows what multimeter you bought the other day. But all these stores normally don't have that data from each other. They can't connect the dots, unless they are all part of the same company AND you used your frequent shopper card.

    So each store only gets a limited 'view' of your habits. Only the place(s) where you

    • by The New Guy 2.0 ( 3497907 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @07:21PM (#49863601)

      My local grocery store once explained to me why they didn't use a discount card, they already recognized me as I walked through the door, and knew the receipt was mine because I was the only one going though three packages of Vanilla Oreos per week. See, when big stores exist in lightly populated areas, the manager knows who the good customers are. My father and I had a good idea what prices were going to lower two weeks ahead because we saw the sale prices at the printing and database companies we worked for, and were sure our store had the deepest discounts in the chain.

      BTW, former next door neighbors... the two of you were on the cover of a magazine there the last time I visited that store... with a story that can't possibly be true!

    • by Anonymous Coward

      It's one thing that your supermarket knows what food stuffs you bought recently. And a local sports store knows what socks & running shoes you bought recently. And a local electronics store knows what multimeter you bought the other day. But all these stores normally don't have that data from each other. They can't connect the dots, unless they are all part of the same company AND you used your frequent shopper card.

      That was the 90s. Now your supermarket, sports store, and electronic shop all sell your purchase history to a broker like ChoicePoint or Acxiom, and in turn buy back more bits and pieces about you that they want to know. Some of them sell (or give) your purchase history to the government to use as part of some nebulous anti-terror profiling.

      Each of those stores might also be crunching their own data and making inferences about you, and selling those *inferences* on to other companies. Remember the guy who w

  • by koan ( 80826 )

    I think this must affect younger users more, having been around when there were no cell phones or computers I don't feel as trapped.
    This powerlessness I don't understand though, all you have to do is not use the stuff.

    Just how brainwashed are we?

    • by moeinvt ( 851793 )

      "all you have to do is not use the stuff."

      Some of the "stuff" is just too damned useful. If you belong to any club, organization, political group or whatever, FB has become a very handy planning and organizing tool. Nobody really wants to manage lists of e-mail addresses anymore, let alone a telephone calling tree like we did in the past.
      Having a portable device that gives you at least internet access, a telephone, calendar, GPS and camera is also extremely useful.

      I think that being cognizant of exactly w

  • It seems to me that the problem is that the user does not want put in the effort to learn about the tools and services they are using. It's conceived as overly complex, probably because of a combination of factors like zealots, technical jargon, corporate bullshit, etc. Even when it is not it's conceived as intrusive. The fact of the matter is that humans are stubborn creatures, and many humans think that when they graduate they don't have to learn anything new, ever. Most people don't have advanced degree
  • Step 1: Don't use a so-called "smart" so-called "phone." Step 2: There is no step 2.
    • Step 1: Don't use a so-called "smart" so-called "phone."

      How are you going to use any phone without involving a corporation, and inserting them into a position to capture both data and metadata and pass them along to law enforcement for misuse, or just abuse them on their own?

    • by jetkust ( 596906 )
      Step 2 is don't use a credit card or any payment system tied to your name. Because, if so, you are likely being tracked. This is already happening by the way. Research the company Acxiom. Step 3 is don't go out in public. Because the logical progression is adding facial recognition to all the millions of cameras already pointed everywhere and AI that logs everything you do throughout the day. The truth is you don't have to do anything. They will come to you.
  • by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @08:33PM (#49863891)
    Why is Acxiom never mention in privacy? They collect data on people independent of social media and independent of any consent or even knowledge they are being tracked. They have information on you even if you've never joined any social media site. They track your credit card purchases, everything you buy, and who knows what else, and they are selling the data to who knows who. They sound way more dangerous than FB and google combined.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    And the dynamic is the same. People have yielded control over their lives in exchange for perceived benefits, and now they've got buyers' remorse.

    • "And the dynamic is the same. People have yielded control over their lives in exchange for perceived benefits, and now they've got buyers' remorse."

      Not the same, we had the illusion we controlled over the Government.
  • Yep. I'd pay money. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by archer, the ( 887288 ) on Sunday June 07, 2015 @09:46PM (#49864197)
    I'd pay money for a Facebook or GMail that didn't sell/give my info to others. I can probably solve the second by running my own mail server, but I don't have the knowledge yet.

    But, of course, if someone were to try to make Cashbook, they'd end up having the community split between themselves and Facebook. And who knows, Facebook might sue over a patent.
    • The problem with this idea is, they would take your money and and give you privacy...for a while. But eventually, the lure of big bucks would make them cave, and they would sell your data anyway. All this would be allowed by unannounced changes to the TOS document, which would be hidden away on the site somewhere.

    • +1. I'd also pay money to Google to be able to use Android without any of their apps (i.e.:being able to uninstall those I don't use).
      I'd also pay money to Microsoft for a Windows 10 without any of their services (Bing, Onedrive, Store, Cortana)
    • I'd pay money for a Facebook or GMail that didn't sell/give my info to others.

      Google (including GMail) doesn't sell or give your info to others. So if that's all you want, you don't even have to pay to get it.

  • by p51d007 ( 656414 )
    Too late...you gave that up when you hooked into the internet, "friended" 3,495 people on facebook, twitter, instagram, said yes to every EULA, turned on tracking for your phone etc...you think government, corporations are just going to give that up?
  • by Anonymous Coward

    This is utter rubbish. If you don't give personal information, then they have none. I post this as (AC). I'm not on FB or Twit or Pin or any of the others. I don't own a cell phone. I have worked for a 3 letter government agency (so it stands to reason, I know better). I do own equipment to do signal acquisition and analysis. It might sound anti-social, but the corporations haven't started blackmailing people (yet). If anything bad happens to a social networking company with a lot of data, there are

  • Keep feeding an ever changing pile of garbage into the databases.

    Never give any accurate data.

    And saying this, I know that the data breach in Washington DC the other day has info from up to 30 years ago.
    They had all my information and I am surprised it was in a system that had network access to the internet !

    I need a new tinfoil hat !

  • And after all the abuse of privacy, the outcomes aren't even that good.

    I searched for one item, went to a store and bought it the same day, and for months I'm being shown adverts for an item I am no longer searching for. It doesn't 'know' something about me, it's taking a guess and it's wrong.

  • As long as our politicians have to suck from the corporate tit to get campaign money, this will never ever change.

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.

Working...