That Was Quick

I dropped the idea of a streaming service changing the video you're watching for each view, and then AT&T gets called out for deciding to change your stream to better target ads.  I recommend you read the Verge article.

The plan AT&T lays out is much more disturbing: they'll combine data from all their properties - cellular, phone, media  change the stream - which will allow them to track you from watching the ad, to actually acting on the ad.  The Verge describes a customer who watches a car ad, and then is tracked going to the dealership. 

I suppose the positive is that you will not have to fill out that survey question about "Where did you hear about us?"

Delete My Data AND The Extracted Information

While I am generally not pro-active in insuring my privacy (I'm quite beholden to Google services), the idea of a 3rd party deleting my data, yet keeping the information their algorithms extracted from it bothers me.

How would I prove the results they generated were wrong?  What if the results have been collected over months or years, and now the Credit Agency see's me as a high risk?  The data used as input to those algorithms is gone now (yay Privacy & Right to Be Forgotten).  How are you going to prove that it was an error and should be removed?  I'm not even sure what data they were collecting.

Moving forward, what if governments worked this way: your data is only on our systems momentarily, and then removed.  Behind the scenes, you've been tagged as a high risk because of an error in the algorithm, and now you are no longer able to purchase a plane ticket.

How will you correct that situation?

It would be like an e-voting system that "recorded" the vote and then destroyed the actual input/ballot.  It flipped every 3rd or 4th vote, but there's no feasible way to prove and fix it.

So, either keep both my data that you used as input and the information you generated, or keep neither.

Did your Streaming Movie Change?

While I enjoy the convenience of digital streaming - be it Movies or Music - I am struck by the potential for some unknown hand to subtly change the scenes, sounds, dialog/vocals, or even "adjust the message".

Since I've purchased a digital copy only, I would not even be able to check to see if something did change.  Almost like a digital "gaslighting." 

Even if there is a physical, unmodified copy available, very few would be motivated to compare.  If it was truly subtle, it may be difficult to notice it.

I feel that this has been done recently - to a syndicated show in order to change the advertiser - and there being at least some discussion about it.  Unfortunately, I am not able to easily dig up anything on it.