There’s not a good way to find out, no. A lot of the data is “anonymous” when collected, and aggregated before it’s sold. But it’s not hard to de-anonymize the data afterward.
So it’s hard to put together a firm trail that shows data from point A gets to point B.
It’s more auctioned off, and most businesses aren’t involved in the transaction. Everytime you come across an ad, (usually) Google says, “Hey, I got this person who hangs out on Lemmy and searches for Mozzarella pics WAY too much. Who wants to show him an ad?” And Sargento gives them a few pennies to try to sell you cheese. Of course, all this happens before the page loads, so algorithms are used to assign the ads and track whether or not you interacted with them.
I believe you’re asking if health companies purchase the data. So I’ll make the assumption that maybe you’re a smoker and you’re wondering if your data will be purchased that you smoke and participate in smoking communities.
The official answer is no, and I doubt they are specifically purchasing that.
However, I think this is going to get very muddy very quickly over the next few years, as I don’t believe there are any laws (in the US) protecting us from health companies purchasing that info. At this point it’s been fairly difficult, but with machine learning and generative AI it’s going to be relatively simple to say “From all of the information you have about {user} tell me if they are a smoker, and if so how long they have been smoking” and then code to say if true and greater than 5 then put them in a higher insurance bracket.
So, I guess I’ll say probably not, but I wouldn’t risk it if you’re real worried.
While I agree in sentiment, why would they buy info that’s not potentially useful?
– even in the US, I don’t think medical insurers or providers are allowed to discriminate by most self-destructive behaviors, like smoking, drinking …. I don’t know about mental illness but I certainly hope they can’t
— companies wanting to sell you medical products, such as for smoking cessation, probably do already advertise with demographics they link to smokers, do already buy that data, but are you counting these as medical providers?
They sell it to anyone willing to buy it. So, yes.
Do they buy it? Is there a way to find out to whom your data is affirmatively being sold or ending up with at the tail end and throughout the chain?
There’s not a good way to find out, no. A lot of the data is “anonymous” when collected, and aggregated before it’s sold. But it’s not hard to de-anonymize the data afterward.
So it’s hard to put together a firm trail that shows data from point A gets to point B.
It’s more auctioned off, and most businesses aren’t involved in the transaction. Everytime you come across an ad, (usually) Google says, “Hey, I got this person who hangs out on Lemmy and searches for Mozzarella pics WAY too much. Who wants to show him an ad?” And Sargento gives them a few pennies to try to sell you cheese. Of course, all this happens before the page loads, so algorithms are used to assign the ads and track whether or not you interacted with them.
I believe you’re asking if health companies purchase the data. So I’ll make the assumption that maybe you’re a smoker and you’re wondering if your data will be purchased that you smoke and participate in smoking communities.
The official answer is no, and I doubt they are specifically purchasing that.
However, I think this is going to get very muddy very quickly over the next few years, as I don’t believe there are any laws (in the US) protecting us from health companies purchasing that info. At this point it’s been fairly difficult, but with machine learning and generative AI it’s going to be relatively simple to say “From all of the information you have about {user} tell me if they are a smoker, and if so how long they have been smoking” and then code to say if true and greater than 5 then put them in a higher insurance bracket.
So, I guess I’ll say probably not, but I wouldn’t risk it if you’re real worried.
While I agree in sentiment, why would they buy info that’s not potentially useful?
– even in the US, I don’t think medical insurers or providers are allowed to discriminate by most self-destructive behaviors, like smoking, drinking …. I don’t know about mental illness but I certainly hope they can’t
— companies wanting to sell you medical products, such as for smoking cessation, probably do already advertise with demographics they link to smokers, do already buy that data, but are you counting these as medical providers?