Google's Auto-Delete Tools Are Practically Worthless For Privacy

'By default, Google collects a vast amount of data on users' behavior,
including a lifelong record of web searches, locations, and YouTube
views. But amid a privacy backlash and ongoing regulatory threats, the
company has started to hype its recently released privacy tools, like
the ability to automatically delete some of the data it collects about
you -- data that helps power its $116 billion ad business. [...] In
reality, these auto-delete tools accomplish little for users, even as
they generate positive PR for Google. Experts say that by the time
three months rolls around, Google has already extracted nearly all the
potential value from users' data, and from an advertising standpoint,
data becomes practically worthless when it's more than a few months
old. "Anything up to one month is extremely valuable," says David
Dweck, the head of paid search at digital ad firm WPromote. "Anything
beyond one month, we probably weren't going to target you anyway."
Dweck says that in the digital ad industry, recent activity is
essential. If you start searching on Google for real estate or looking
up housing values, for instance, Google might lump you into a
"prospective home buyers" category for advertisers. That information
becomes instantly valuable to realtors, appraisers, and lenders for ad
targeting, and it could remain valuable for a while as other
companies, such as painters or appliance brands, try to follow up on
your home buying. Still, it's unusual for advertisers to target users
based on their activity from months earlier, Dweck says.'

-- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/10/15/1933230

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
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