1 yr. ago • 99%

Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

www.eff.org Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

We trust companies with our information every day. But many companies—even those that hold our most revealing information—are using it not just to provide the services we ask for, but to amp up their profits at the cost of our privacy.That's why EFF has joined a campaign, led by the U.S. Public...

This is why I think gnu taler is a great company and project

Technology @lemmy.world Mastercard should stop selling our data

Hacker News @derp.foo Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

TechNews @radiation.party [HN] Mastercard Should Stop Selling Our Data

37 comments

Why just Mastercard. ALL payment services are doing this. Everything from payment gateways, card brands, digital wallets (You really think google and apple aren’t logging every detail of your purchases). Seems a bit silly to just call out Mastercard.

77
- Per the article, it seems Visa has already stopped this practice. I think they’re calling out Mastercard as the other top player in the consumer credit card space (I doubt Amex has quite the market dominance Visa / MC do, especially overseas).
  
  34
  
  Ironically: "Enable JavaScript & cookies to continue" IA alternative link
  
  9
  
  They probably spawned a sub company who will take that over. No way in hell I believe they stopped this practice.
  
  8
  
  And just because Visa is shutting down Ad Solutions does not mean Visa is out of the data-slinging business, but Gerlt declined to provide details as to what that could look like going forward
  
  2
- The government is selling your financial data, which is a whole other level of fucked up since thats not something you can opt out of, at all.
  
  11
More importantly, we should stop giving Mastercard our data. Paying for everything with credit cards has been an obviously bad idea since thirty years ago at latest.

22
- Regardless of it being a bad idea, it’s convenience completely overwhelmed any privacy considerations. As far as I can tell, we’re marching towards a cashless future with the last dam being politicians need for untraceable cash themselves. But those old politicians are being replaced by family dynasties who have replaced cash payments with favors for their son’s wife’s firm.
  
  Feudalism with extra steps, as ordained by our Heavenly Father Mr. monopoly man
  
  1
- Our only real private option is cash, and people are more and more pushing it as "outdated".
  
  1
A wise man once said "cash is king"

Although that brings up a point on how reliant we are on the banks, but a private crypto currency like monero is not yet ready for mass adoption.

19
- I use it to pay for VPN and stuff, works pretty well IMO. There's potential scaling issues if too many people use it, but you can get around those by using XMR to privately purchase a different cryptocurrency with higher throughput. Tornado Cash was pretty cool too before they made using it a felony.
  
  8
  
  How do you get your XMR? I looked into it once but it seemed like a hassle
  
  5
- Already, I see a lot of stigma around cryptocurrency. I don't know if it'll ever take off thanks to stuff like NFTs ruining it.
  
  7
- Monero will never be ready for mass adoption. The problem is that it is primary used for illegal transations. Its effectively tainted in my eyes
  
  -8
  
  Is cash tainted for the same reason? I think when a currency is good for commiting crime, it is an indication that the currency is well designed.
  
  10
  
  But you actually don't know what monero is being used for when it's used in transactions, no one does. You just have a bias that if people want to keep their transactions secret, it must be illegal.
  
  You could make the same argument for cash.
  
  9
  
  Same argument can be said for encryption LMAO
  
  9
  
  Anything that is private is going to be used for illegal transactions. That is not Monero's fault. If you want it to be used for less illegal transactions, then use it for legal transactions yourself. I personally use it to pay for my life insurance, groceries, phone bill, etc. And as far as I'm aware, none of those are illegal transactions.
  
  -1
Bruh the government is selling your financial data. We need serious data-hoarding reform.

1
Are they alleging that Mastercard sells data with personally identifiable information? Because if not, what’s the big deal? The people that buy this data want to know about trends.

-1
- The big deal is having my spending analyzed. I don't want my spending habits be used against me
  
  12
  
  How is it being used against you?
  
  -4
- Ask the woman and her daughter that got charged after anti abortion laws got passed and were dumb enough to use Facebook for communication.
  
  Even assuming that MasterCard is fully intending to keep everything secure (which is impossible to guarantee), you never know how it's going to be used later on.
  
  I mean, ffs, it's already known that multiple US agencies just buy data and use it for their purposes. It's a damn sure bet that every damn country does something similar.
  
  De-anonymizing data is a thing. You get enough data points, and everything is right there.
  
  4

You've viewed 37 comments.