This is certainly scary stuff, but I was a bit annoyed with the line:
"...consequences such as when Target notified a woman's family that she was pregnant before she even told them. "
I've heard this story referenced time and again with respect to motivating people to care about privacy and tracking. I'm all for privacy, but I feel like: (a) we should have more recent anecdotes about the consequences of tracking than a story from 2012, (b) the mechanism that Target used to infer this is far less intrusive (not making it OK) than what we see here, and (c) its really not strong enough an example.
Not that speculation is the way to go, but what about the possibility of someone being turned down for life insurance due to this information?
Well, it is a simple example and has the virtue of being true instead of the often quoted but misrepresented McDonalds hot coffee story. Simple examples showing a situation are best, and much like iOS bug statistics, the parties who would have the statistics on situations caused by tracking are never going to make them public.
"...consequences such as when Target notified a woman's family that she was pregnant before she even told them. "
I've heard this story referenced time and again with respect to motivating people to care about privacy and tracking. I'm all for privacy, but I feel like: (a) we should have more recent anecdotes about the consequences of tracking than a story from 2012, (b) the mechanism that Target used to infer this is far less intrusive (not making it OK) than what we see here, and (c) its really not strong enough an example.
Not that speculation is the way to go, but what about the possibility of someone being turned down for life insurance due to this information?