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Picture this:
- You type on Google "laptop won't turn on"
- Google now knows you have a broken laptop and can estimate how desperate you are to fix it.
- Because it knows how desperate you are, it can increase shop prices proportionally.
You are going to pay the maximum they get you to pay.
That's algorithmic pricing.
The more companies know about you, the more they can predict and sell how desperate you are to other stores out there.
An internet-connected car knows much more about you than you realize. A smart TV also knows what you like. Your Alexa knows if there is a problem in the home.
Privacy is much more than just sensitive data.
It's about not giving leverage away.
Because algorithms will use it against you.
Be safe out there.
Okay so fast-forward ~~ten~~ two more years beyond that (it doesn't matter how much - all of this is already in the past anyway:-P): virtually everyone (from your area) has an internet presence. But for you, all "they" see is a tiny stream of encrypted traffic to servers outside of your home country. Or maybe a large stream, whatever - are you downloading child pornography perhaps? Or are you a terrorist, trying to evade detection by the "legitimate" establishment, who is simply trying to "help" you to set the price for fixing your laptop?
Bam, they charge you the maximum amount for the repair anyway, then tack on a fee for the extra effort involved in having to investigate you further, making the final price double what it would have been. And this happens for every single item you buy, plus you cannot get a job b/c you don't have a FacedInLinkThread account. The best sheeples get the best pricing structures...
This isn't something that individuals can fight easily, without a rather extreme amount of effort involved. Hence we should fight it together.
Fast food joints already offer lower prices in their apps than at the drive through. You pay the difference through all the data they harvest.
I've only ever seen higher prices in apps
Look at me moneybags over here, having so much money his algorithmic pricing goes up
Yes I have an order ready for a "None-ya", is there a "None-ya" here? Is anyone here named "None-ya bidness"?
It's a damnable choice, that's for sure. Let them see literally everything that you do - in the sense of every single app that you have installed on that same machine - or else pay the extra price. Ngl, depending on how often I visit each place, I've gone both ways on this. Also, rather than recall a unique password for every site that is accessible from your mobile and potentially synched with a desktop, if you log in using a Play/Google or App/Apple account, then they have that link too - it's just so convenient though!
It used to be email addresses. Now that still happens, but the ratchet has moved up to include phones. This is why I refuse to put banking apps onto any mobile devices - they are not "computers", nor are they "yours", most often even when rooted & with the OS replaced, b/c of the corruption that Google has introduced into the core Android OS.
But... what else can we do, other than choose which manner of payment we will offer the wolves? Even if that is only in terms of our efforts, time, and attention spans (and possibly the cost of a 2nd phone or at least SIM:-P) - they manage to define so many of our actions even if only in the negative sense of what we rail against. That part is inevitable, so the only question remaining is how much do we give in.