Lazy Man and Money

It wasn’t Facebook or Cambridge Analytica. It was Regulators (and Us.)

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By now the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook story is a little old. I was aiming to write about it as it was evolving, but I couldn’t get there.

Internet Privacy

When I first heard that Cambridge Analytica had information on 50 million Americans from Facebook, it was the least surprising news I could think of. Some were saying it was a data breech, but that to me, means that the information was stolen through some kind of illegal hacking. It is my understanding that this is just how advertising has worked at Facebook.

So while I think you can (and should) get angry at Cambridge Analytica, it’s not going to the solve the problem. People naturally went up the food chain and got angry at Facebook. Some people have even deleted their accounts. Finally, they can breath easy knowing that their privacy is protected, right?

Wrong. A lot of other places already have their data.

What’s surprising to me is that people seem to be surprised by Facebook having and using information about them. How didn’t they think Facebook, which sells no physical product to people, was worth more than 3 times Disney?

Weren’t we all aware this was the trade off we were making. If not we should have been. We were told about it so many different ways that it was even made into very comedy.

Check it out:



That video does great job of covering Facebook and Google. However, it doesn’t mention having Googe Android phones, which I do. I chose Android because it was more “open” than the other choice, Apple.

Google and Facebook know more about you that may think. People might freak out when they see everything they know about you.

The video doesn’t mention anything about Amazon, which I’m sure knows almost as much. Even smaller companies pose a problem. Netflix was testing ways to get kids more addicted to Netflix. However, Netflix saves children from watching a lot of advertising as well.

All of this data collection is going on and there really isn’t much you can do about. You’d have to be extremely vigilant, probably change your lifestyle (goodbye smartphone, goodbye credit cards), and even then some stuff would probably slip through the cracks.

And while we can all “vote” how we feel by deleting Facebook, it’s unlikely to cause a dent in the 2 billion people who aren’t going to vote with you. If I delete my LinkedIn account, I’m only hurting my own chances at career networking.

There’s a lot talk out there that we choose for this to happen. I’m not sure everyone wanted to give up their privacy. However, as the video above explained, we didn’t want to pay for websites, so giving up identities to advertisers was the bargain we made. On the other hand, it would have been impossible to charge people real money for every website they wanted to visit. We’re seeing how those costs add up with just streaming media accounts nowadays.

Privacy Isn’t Just these Big Internet Companies

So far I’ve only covered all the internet stuff that you should be old news to you. There’s a lot more out there.

Morgan Spurlock covered “Privacy” in May of 2014 on the CNN show, Inside Man. You can watch the episode here. Some of the episode does cover the big internet websites. However, it covers so much more than Google or Facebook. If this topic is interesting to you, you should spend 42 minutes and watch it.

There are many mysterious companies (ever hear of Epsilon?) that have all our information aggregated. Spurlock goes on a quest to try to get his information from those companies. I won’t spoil the show, but I think it ends how you think it does.

It’s Time for Regulators to Help Consumers

I think we’ve established that most consumers can’t do much to protect themselves. Much of the time we don’t who has our data or who is selling it. After huge Equifax attack, we all said, “Wait, this is crazy. We didn’t even choose to let them have our data in the first place.”

Individually it seems we can’t hold companies accountable. If Morgan Spurlock can’t get his data after traveling across the country, the rest of us don’t have much of a shot. Have you ever tried to get Google on the phone?

The only people with the power to hold the companies accountable is regulators. Most of the time they aren’t interested. They only get interested when the media makes repeated national stories about Equifax or Facebook. Have you ever seen a group of regulators go after Epsilon like Spurlock?

My idea here for a solution isn’t unique. In fact this excellent Bloomberg article goes deeper into it than I do. The time to create a Digital Protection Agency is long overdue.

I don’t even know if this will work, but at least it would be a step in the right direction. Like a lot of things these days, it seems like it’s going to be a long journey.

When you Sue a School, Does Anyone Win?

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If you’ve been following the news lately, you may have come across a story where a Pennsylvania school system has been allegedly spying on their students. The Rosemont’s Harriton High School’s computers included software that would allow them to turn on the webcam whenever they wanted. This would effectively allow them to spy on students in the privacy of their own home. This came to light when the school allegedly informed student Blake Robbins’ parents that he had been selling drugs and even showed a still photograph as evidence. The Robbins’ family claims these accusations are false. You can read more details here or watch this video:


CNET noted that the school system could be sued for violating a number of laws/regulations such as, “the Fourth Amendment, the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act, the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, and Pennsylvania common law.” They didn’t even get into the potential child pornography charges that could potentially come from the girl who said that she shower with her laptop open to listen to music (if they are shown to have violated that).

I find the story interesting on many levels. Having a Computer Science degree and working in the technology industry for the past decade, I usually stay on top of technology happenings. It never occurred to me that a web cam could be used in a nefarious way like this. Take it a step further and imagine a virus that does the same thing. Yikes!

The biggest question for me from a financial perspective is, “What if the school is found guilty of all these violations?” The damages could be millions and spread across numerous families. On the outset it would seem that justice would be served and everyone could just move on. However, the community would be left with a bankrupt school system. That typically means raised taxes. So others in the town would have to pick up the pieces. This leads me to think, the ones who “win” could be the lawyers. It might even be in the community’s best interest to root for the school as outlandish as it sounds.

Product Safety vs. Privacy

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David Horowitz authors the very popular Fight Back! website. As a consumer advocate we have something in common. He writes for the Costco Connection, a magazine that is sent to Costco members. Most of the time, his one page article is the highlight of the magazine. July’s issue is no different.

The typical article is divided into three points that consumers should know right away. Two of this months articles are about medical warnings and changes that don’t fit the scope of what I write about. The other one, product recalls, is something that struck me as interesting. First, I’ll have to paraphrase the problem that Horowitz brings to light.

What Happens When a Product is Recalled

It’s pretty straight forward for products on the shelf… the store takes them off the shelf. What about the products that are already purchased? It’s hard to get a hold of consumers to let them know that they dangerous product. A new bill aims to fix that. A manufacturer of children’s products would have to keep track of consumer’s who purchased their products in case they are recalled.

What About Privacy?

Is losing our privacy the price we pay for safety? I might not care too much about the privacy when I buy a children’s product, but I could see this leaking into other areas that might be concerned about. Do I want companies to have a record of everything I purchase? I suppose that if I use a credit card, they probably already have that record. I still like the option of using cash and being anonymous.

Is there a good solution that protects privacy? I suppose that we could go to Recalls.Gov and look up our products every now and again, but who would really keep up with that. Maybe someone could set up a master database and one could enter the products they own. They’d give an e-mail they use and when something comes up the consumer would be e-mailed. I’d feel more anonymous if I could use my e-mail as an alias. I don’t mind that they contact huggybear83062@yahoo.com (not a real e-mail address that I know of).

What do you think? Are you concerned about your privacy for all the products you buy or does safety trump it? Can you have your cake (safety) and eat it too (privacy)?