To continue my pursuit of free and open information, I've published all my research notes: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/Data+Deletion+Services+Video UPDATE: DeleteMe responded to my video: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/DeleteMe+responded+to+my+video Incogni also responded to the video: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/Incogni's+response Also, just in case it wasn't clear in the video, I am not being critical of any creators that take these sponsors. Many of them have no idea about the topics we brought up in this video, and these companies are very good at misguiding creators. Please please please DO NOT harass any creators that take these sponsors. If you want more information regarding my opinion on creators and sponsors, please watch this video: ruclips.net/video/R3aTL38wAfU/video.html Quick update on these data deletion services, if you live in CA, you can get this all done by the state's new DROP system. They support over 500 data brokers, which is almost double that of these services, and it's totally free. Learn more here: privacy.ca.gov/drop/ Corrections: 1 - 5:17 "if you've read a few health related articles using Google Chrome Google will sell that information as well" According to their privacy policy, Google will not show you health-related ads, however, they do share health related data, so this is halfway true. 2 - Someone pointed out that they canceled their subscription to Incogni as a result of this video, and they were not prompted to contact support, so that may be resolved since I wrote that and published the video. Gotta count the wins where we can! 3 - This is less of a correction and more of a clarification. There are certain articles that claim that Gmail does not scan your emails anymore, but this is only covering that they removed this from their Terms of Service. Google's privacy policy still clearly states that: "Communications data, such as emails, if you use our services to send and receive messages." is used for "Advertising: Google processes information to provide advertising, including online identifiers, browsing and search activity, and information about your location and interactions with advertisements. This keeps Google’s services and many of the websites and services you use free of charge", so to summarize (my favorite), Google does still scan your emails for advertising. 4 - There's been some solid discussion in one of these comments that I might have misread the privacy policy for eight sleep. Their policy isn't terribly clear in my opinion on defining what the source of the data collection is, the app or the mattress itself. That said, it is still clear that in either case, they do collect and share usage data to meta and many other companies for the purposes of advertising and more, and that is for sure done through the app itself. I will want to pull this one up in a live stream for us to have a much more in depth conversation, but as it stands, I may be incorrect on the source of that data collection, but it is collected and shared regardless. There's a reasonable argument that this is a paranoid interpretation, however, so if you are considering one of these products, please read the privacy policy yourself and make an informed decision on your own. It's hard to keep in check at times, given how many of them I read for this channel, so if you disagree, please let me know! 5 - Surprisingly, Amazon does NOT sell user information (even by CCPA standards, which I really was not expecting). I still don't like them as a company for a wide array of reasons (union busting, employee abuse, the whole dystopia thing they got going for them), but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong about something! Here's the source: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GC5HB5DVMU5Y8CJ2 6 - DeleteMe appears to have "fixed" the issue where their privacy policy wasn't able to be read if you had strict settings in Firefox. However, they decided add a barrier between you clicking the privacy policy button on their home page and you being able to read the *actual* policy. Not very privacy friendly, if you ask me, but hey, at least they're not blocking it anymore. Gotta count the wins where we can, I guess.
I work as a private investigator specializing in OSINT, and also do cybersecurity work. I haven't actually watched this video yet but I'm glad to see somebody talking about this. I've always scoffed at the absurd fees people are paying these companies given I can find all their information anyway lmao. People in general REALLY underestimate their digital footprint and how linked it is to their IRL existence. Just about anybody that vocally cares about their privacy online has already doxxed themselves in a dozen ways. Finished video, W overall
do you think people are generally more motivated to go for more privacy as the companys that do this have been doing more and more by time that its reached a boiling point where people are even moving to linux as an example
@CosmicStellar1 I think it helps that we're starting to see a noticeable decline in quality and care. People just want stuff to work with as little resistance as possible. Windows has been getting worse and worse over the years, but Linux has been getting better and better. There is still resistance in leaving the platform that you know, but there is a tipping point, and I suspect we're seeing a lot of that right now.
Do you want to live off the grid and be totally private from the outside world? Well for the low monthly payment of $29.99 you can, all you have to do is create an account and pay with a secure bank card and we will do the rest!
100%. They called me strange for wanting my internet anonymity, that's long dead and gone now but that anonymity was privacy, and that privacy was so valuable
The Mirror (UK newspaper) now hides 'privacy' settings (cookies) behind a paywall! They're calling it 'Privacy Plus' I'm unsure if any other newspaper outlets are doing the same, but I wouldn't be surprised if they all adopted this very soon, even though it's still disgusting!
@AdamOwenBrowning i always screw with my data. diffrent names, diffrent adresses, nothing i put online is consistant. makes finding whoi actualy am, my actual adress, everything hard to track properly. is it fullproof? no. but sofar its kept me safe. im a ghost for online data.
EXACTLY, most of these fools use the apps and hardware like their phones that always manipulates them like a Bug Brother. They are always told to spend more instead of saving money and living better lives.
I almost took a deleteme sponsorship and when I backed out, the agency would NOT take no for an answer - then I super duper didn't want to work with them. Thanks for making this video!
Another marketing agency reached out to me a couple weeks ago asking if I wanted to do a sponsor for DeleteMe and I was like... uhh I don't think you want that lol
I started incogni off a RUclips sponsor about a month ago. I used to get 4-6 spam calls a day and now I get none. I also canceled my subscription without any hassel.
That's a pretty general statement. There are many services I've used that I started using before ever seeing them as sponsors, nord is one example. I use their entire ecosystem. So I can't help but both be skeptical and give the benefit of doubt at times with sponsors, it depends on the service and how clear it is how they make their money.
Well 90% of the time thats true. Seatgeek has been a great experience for me and Has saved me a bunch of money on concert tickets. And nord vpn is pretty valid.
well they would be required by EU laws (GDPR) if they operate in europe, even if the company is american. Though they wouldn't be required to DELETE it, just to ANONYMIZE it.
Anonymity doesn't really mean much when you think about it legally, after-all if the definition isn't concrete a good lawyer which these companies do have, can just say we assigned a internal case number to each piece of data, in which case it would be trivial to find out anything they want about you still but at least then your identity is "Anonymous" after-all it isn't directly associated to your name even if it has every other bit of PII required to find that out. And that's just one angle a lawyer can take it's really not hard at all to break this system
@FrameEnderEnderNation Good thing we don't use that term in the rgpd prefering the use of personal data personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person; pseudonymisation is also defined in rgpd
I mean, youtube for us is what tv was 40 or 50 years ago. It's the new medium to advertise propaganda to billions of people. Honestly, we should question all type of propaganda in general.
@Hayanomie I question ANY an ALL advertisement because they are trying to get you to buy something and likely over selling their product. The best ones are the ones that spread only via word of mouth.
Back in 2020, my aunt died of cancer. Most of the family couldn’t travel to the funeral because the lockdown was beginning, so instead, right before she passed, one of my uncles set up a family group chat on Facebook so we could all message our goodbyes and her daughter read them to her. My aunt was a quilter, and in my message I mentioned how I always admired her beautiful quilted blankets. Almost immediately, I started getting Etsy ads on Facebook for quilts. I was also streaming Gravity Falls a lot during this time, so a lot of the quilts the ads showed me were Gravity Falls themed.
Sorry for your loss. And 100% Facebook uses messages to advertise. My best friend and I have tested it via Messenger and voice via Messenger. We would talk about how cool, or how much we need some random bs things as we noticed after a gaming session we would get odd af ads. And we trialled with it some of the most out there stuff that neither of us even knew the name of. Like how it's so hard to buy that amazing tasting rotting whale you can get in Alaska. Only talked about it then wow it appears on fb and Google ads. I could go on. But it's scummy. Skype also seems to do it.
Had a similarly creepy experience around the same time. In January of 2020, I was living in China but visiting family back in the US over Chinese New Year. I was talking to a friend on WeChat who wanted me to buy a specific American brand of Whey Protein and bring it back to Beijing with me when I returned. After that conversation on WeChat (we spoke via video chat, btw), immediately after I hung up the call, I started getting ads on Facebook for Whey Protein that specifically mentioned shipping options to China. I literally froze when it registered what I was seeing and deleted Facebook from my phone after that. So creepy.
@kaseywahl in 2018 or 2019 I was talking with a coworker who had a problem with his leg, about maybe getting a cool cane. A couple hours later I went to the kitchen to eat and I was watching RUclips and got an ad for a cane with flashlight and slip resistant tip.
In my psychology undergrad program, a marketing psychologist came to speak with my class saying they can literally tell when someone is becoming/entering a manic episode and can change advertising to higher price and higher impulse buy products and services so as a consumer is beginning to enter an impulse control struggle time, they receive riskier advertising options. This person spoke to my class in... 2007. The tech has only advanced since then.
@QTwoSix "Evil" would be keeping it as intellectual property and not sharing it with future psychologists who can leverage the research to benefit humanity....
I have often wondered how they prevent invalid data and noise. I sometimes put things in that don't represent me just to mess with the system. Plus why I choose things may not represent why I'm buying something. For example, I may be buying for a client or friend.
A small child shouldn't be developing an identity ON THE INTERNET in the first place. IMHO 16 and over should be allowed online, not younger. In the US it's 13 and over allowed; in the UK it's 16 and over. Why is that so difficult for parents to abide by?
@20NewJourney23it's hard to not be on the internet as someone under 25. you'll be missing out on a ton of in jokes, and people will probably just shove it in your face anyways.
I signed up for the 2 year plan with incogni. 6 months into it emailing back and forth with their support team it was revealed to me that they don't have many NA based brokers they have access to. I then asked why they are advertising on NA based YT accounts? To which they didn't reply. Suffice to say, I didn't resign and have shared my story as often as possible,
Legal liability for lawsuit, I guess; technically they can't legally "delete on your behalf" without additional information, so they add Sranje to the fine print so they aren't legally liable should they not be able to provide the service they're advertising..... At least, that's my perspective from a non US citizen
They don't need enforcement powers. They only need a law in the region you're in to have enforcement powers. That's why they only sell these services in regions where there are laws that require companies to delete your data upon request, like in the EU.
The EU is one of the last bastions out there that can regulate data & tech-related matters to any meaningful degree (if there's more, lmk!). I hope they prevail in efforts to actually make a positive change!
no shit..violating GDPR laws maens the EU can hand down a fine with like 10 0s in the number.....srsly its no joke....they could banrupt a company if they wished....
YES! I remember the day when this article hit! I was in a marketing class and we spent the whole day talking about the ethics of it, and how its a slippery slope. It was actually THIS article that changed my entire outlook on data privacy.
@GothamPossum I also remember this in my marketing class. That entire book was an eye-opener and a huge reason why I began to lose faith in capitalism in general. And because RUclips won't let me make another comment on this thread, the book was McGraw-Hill's Introduction to Marketing, the most recent edition I think.
I just wanted to remind people that while Target's pregnancy prediction algorithm was proven to be real, the whole 'angry father who later apologizes' narrative is likely false or embellished at best. The only source comes from an employee at Target. The story never gives any verifiable details about the incident, meanwhile all the articles covering the story constantly insert commentary which praises Target's advanced algorithms and customer service. The story also ends too neatly, when most people wouldn't even bother contacting nor apologizing to a corporate entity, especially one that is 'spying' on their daughter.
@lucinaembl2242good context. I also hope more people question the narrative of throwing the algorithm into a good light. While I’m not anti capitalist, I really don’t think people should be siding with the algorithm here. It exists to put your data and therefore yourself at risk to profit off of. Data is the most valuable commodity today, and companies individuals and governments steal it from you to make huge profit off of it every day while putting you at risk and giving you no commission. So the algorithm is not a good thing for consumers.
Not using AI has become a mark of quality and earnestness. Seeing that message right from the start let me know I was in for a genuinely good video and channel.
@Goldy01Most of it probably is public. But data from private chats, data leaks and small personal stuff also made its way into training LMMs. Google, for example, collects data from Gboard users all the time, under the pretence of making the correction tools better.
I've worked at a place that maintained a database, and we occasionally would get requests to delete personal data. My boss would tell me not to do so, because we wanted the database to be as big as possible. So these companies send an email saying "delete this" and my employer would ignore it, and that's that. The user's money is being wasted on such a company.
@sujimayne In many jurisdictions, a lot of things are illegal but still done because people don't complain. Think about it, the data delete services are being paid regardless so they're not invested in having the customer's legitimate interest in mind beyond doing the bare minimum. Company has little reason to respond to these companies because there's always ways to drag things out even if it goes to court it's very difficult to actually prove anything was done (or not done) out of malice rather than accident. And for the consumer, they have no clue whether the data delete services are actually being vigilant with enforcing lawful demands or not. At the end of the day, it still comes back to "If you genuinely care about your data, don't rely on others to manage who has / don't have access to it. You gotta do it yourself, because there isn't a non-partial entity in that space to do it for you.
I applied for an LLC and the very first piece of business mail I received was a threatening letter telling me to send a check to a PO box for "compliance." I actually received the scam before I received my certificate. Stay safe people 🙏
Bought a house....yeah. Hello Fresh sends junk mail, I found out. Among others. Several for businesses that don't service our area. I hate our government sells our data.
@tonymouannes No, they don’t. Public records are public. Scammers just abuse public records. Are you arguing that no government records should be public? The problem is scammers engaging in scams, not the idea that there should be transparency in government.
@stillmoms governments should actually just not exist? But also yes records about random people and their details shouldn’t be publicly accessible actually
Genuinely my first thought was, oh they find and get rid of all your information? So for them to find it, I have to first give them ALL MY INFORMATION. So more people have my data? 💀
@trustworthydan VPNs do have real uses (avoiding region locks and committing piracy, for one (two?)) and there are ones that aren't sketchy. They're just not advertised on youtube.
@trustworthydan The only reason to get a VPN is to torrent pirated content online without your ISP knowing. They can't advertise that, so they go with a bunch of nonsense about "a lack of security" you can "protect yourself from" by using their service. Nonsense, of course.
The first thing I was thinking was; how do I even know that they're effectively removing my personal data in the first place? The only reason I could hire them would be for the convenience but to get my money's worth I would need to check on them that they're doing what they're supposed to. How do I know the data brokers are actually deleting the information even? There's so many unknowns in this game. And all these groups have a vested interest to obfuscate their actions as well.
You're also creating and supporting large companies with a massive financial interest to lobby politicians into not regulating data brokers. Hell, if I was Incogni, I would setup a data broking service on the side and sell the data of everyone who does not pay my ransom.
My first thought, every time I see one of those ads is, "who, in their right mind, puts their personal data online?" I've been using a PC since 1979, and the Internet since '96, and I have never once done that.
Animating little 'imperfections' like the projection bleeding onto the desk a little, having a glare from lighting on the tv screen, and changing sun glare at the end delights me for some unknown reason.
The realistic effects stood out to me too as really cool too. Contrasted with the lack of realism with the narrator or host, it was a little weird-looking though. I'd love to know more about how this was created behind the scenes.
Question, lets say your mattress is spying on you.... How is that harming you? Now you might see an ad for a sleeping pill instead of totally random ads for say womens tampoons, is that really going to bother you that much? Like what is the actual harm being done, Im assuming none other than "invasion of privacy" but again, whats the actual harm, how is your wallet or family being affected by seeing an advertisment that might actually be of interest to you?
There’s a _very_ old documentary called “Terms and Conditions” that explained how anonymized data can be combined to strip it of its anonymity. It was an eye opener.
This is honestly the ideal video essay channel. “Here’s a problem. Here’s how to fix it. Here’s how you can. Here’s why you should.” No notes. Give this person all the money
@Appoxomostly agree, shouldn't reject everything sight unseen just because RUclipsrs are selling it. HOWEVER in some cases you may not get much info simply "doing research." Did anyone know what Honey was doing before the big expose dropped? Was there any way to know? Probably not, in which case I'd fall back on a second rule of thumb: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. "Oh come on, they went to the effort of creating and maintaining an app that saves me money and they won't charge me a cent to use it? AND they can afford to advertise literally everywhere? What are they getting out of this deal???" So, probably, do some research, but also trust your gut a bit, and in the absence of any clear evidence, maintain a healthy level of skepticism.
@notthecheatr23 It's much simpler to just reject everything youtbe has, as a scam. It's just not worth your time to give them the benefit of the doubt. They will use that benefit of the doubt to make you cave in and buy.
So they're about as useful as I thought, good to know. Also, it's clear you've had fun with all the extra art in the title screens, and it looks great! :D
@rejectconvenienceCurious about your process for animating the avatar. Did you use an automation tool? (Longtime 3ds Max user here, but experimenting with Blender now)
@manyworldsvideo This is 100% blender, including the edit of the stuff that is projected on the screens! I've been meaning to make a big old "how I make my videos" video on my second channel, so keep an eye out for that over there!
The "right to be forgotten," formally known as the "right to erasure" in EU law, allows individuals to request the removal of personal data from search engines and other platforms under certain circumstances. This right is a fundamental part of the European Union's data protection laws
@GigiBranconi Yes it totally works. you just can cope past the legal paragraph and ask them to remove all your data. Thats all incogni do send emails automatically.
This is so unreal to me. I spend my day at work redacting personally identifying information from public documents from as much as 50 years ago, and now that info is bought and sold every minute of every day.
Ugh, they creep me out like nothing else. This might just be my Europeaness talking, but I find the idea of companies taking advantage of people going through some of the worst times in their lives like that repulsive.
Is there a way to auto disable any non-essential cookie? Like when a site ask me to accept them, I don't have to go unticking whatever it lets me untick, but does it by default? It's so annoying when you visit a site just for one reason, one time, and then you get bombarded with the cookie sh1t and being asked to subscribe to the news feed or donate or whatever they want. even with an adblocker, there are a lot of these idiotic time wasting popups that make me want to live in the woods without electricity.
You can work with scriptblockers to achieve this. But you have to learn how to configure them, otherwise its everytime a lot of work if you visit a site.
Ever since the honey scandal, I've been seeing more ads for these services in place of them. I've been waiting for a video going in depth on these data deletion services ever since because something just didn't sit right with me. Great video
Fun fact! There’s a New Honey! It has the exact same schtick Honey did, but for some reason people don’t remember that “finding the best coupon codes for you” for free means they’re making their money off the user. I legit saw an ad for this new company and flat out called out the RUclipsr for it being Honey 2.0. Hopefully someone else sees my comment and stays the heck away from em.
Yeah, honey, kind of bothered me… I would try to contact them and ask them what benefit they’re getting and how they’re making money because there’s no way they can keep their company going without making some kind of money selling something… They wouldn’t be honest with me I even late asked do you sell the data you collect to data brokers or someone else and they would not be honest with me. They told me that’s always free and they get no benefit out of it. I told them no one is that philanthropic to make no money off of an app that they have to be making money somewhere . Literally a few months later, it all came out they were selling your information and that’s how they were making. Most of the money is from people using their app to search for stuff. I don’t mind the anonymous stuff being necessarily shared. It is still kind of weird, but the fact they wouldn’t own up to it bothers me.
The DeleteMe/Incogni services sound exactly like the Honey thing. All of a sudden, everyone is sponsored by these people. Something doesn’t sit right and I think there’s going to be more to it in the future
The pregnancy one led to me randomly receiving an unsolicited sample of formula right after a miscarriage. That was more than 10 years ago. That's what I needed. A formula company to remind me. It was messed up.
They still do this! Unsolicited formula showed up for me last year! I’ve never had kids or been pregnant but it irritated me so much! Pregnancy can be such a sensitive topic for so many reasons! It’s such a strange marketing tactic…
I'd argue that the moment your bed has a privacy policy it's time to return it without even reading it - but that's just me as someone who reads pretty much all ToS & Privacy Policies I agree to, most people just skip through and say "Yes" just to complain afterwards.
lmfao any smartphone for almost 20years now will detect when you have sex or masturbate. as long as it's in the room it will be able to tell easier than you. look it up. have fun with that info.
The first time I heard a youtube sponser tell me "Take a photo of your documents and receipts and this service will clean up the photo and block off important information!" Blew my mind. Who in their right mind would willingly agree to send private info to a service to remove said private info off a photo for you to save??
Used incogni, I live in the EU, GDPR applies to me, basically anyone I ask (no not banks, police and that stuff) is legally obligated to delete everything on me. Basically 90% of the companies incogni emailed told me that they can't delete my stuff because I need to be the person contacting them, they legally can't do anything about a rando company emailing them (with details about my personally identifiable information so they can find my stuff wich is sketchy itself) to delete everything on me.
Data controllers are obligated to comply with requests by authorized representatives. But they may need to verify that the representative can act on your behalf, if doing so is suitable and proportionate. See e.g. EDPB (European Data Protection Board) guidelines 01/2022 section 3.4 ("requests made via third parties/proxies"). I would have expected a *data removal company* to have procedures in place to verify that they are authorized to request deletion on your behalf...
This is why I don't hesitate to call Incogni a scam. Idk about the others, but my experience with incogni came at the cost of exposing my data to more brokers than before I used their service! I bought Incogni through nordvpn when it first launched then got locked out of my account after the first month (Even though I still paid). They just said "we don't know whats happening, theres nothing we can do" for the next 2 months, then finally said "You will have to figure it out with nord".. I never got refunded by either company, never got the service other than the first month, and over a fking year later was getting emails from data brokers abroad saying that incogni was submitting opt-outs on my behalf.
Yeah, I don’t really believe people are so eager to help us without some kind of benefit on their part… The only people I’ve seen be that way is very religious people in certain faiths, and even then you have to look at their life and who they are before you can actually believe that they’re not just trying to benefit themselves …. There’s a very specific personality skill set. You’re looking for when somebody genuinely wants to just help you out because they’re good people…. I don’t think half of these companies making apps are those kind of people.
@Jaxmusicgal23 Well at least here it is clear they are getting paid by your money, so there's no obvious con they have to be pulling to be viable, unlike Honey that has to get a cut somewhere since the app is free.
@Jaxmusicgal23Incogni is a subscription service. Their selling point is "you're paying us to save yourselves the time of sending E-Mails to various companies"
I've always been somewhat interested in these services but I'm always just a bit suspicious of anything that get advertised a little _too_ much. I'm glad you've made a video on these services.
Well *everything* is sus. Opera, Politicans, Tencent, everything that offers free services (that is why I use brave and activated their ads [they are annoying but at least it makes it more unlikely that they sell my data]) Never trust anyone with your data, who doesn't want money, unless it is Signal. Cough Whatsapp cough.
A golden rule is if an advertiser has enough money to spam RUclipsrs with sponsors but not enough to plaster billboards everywhere, it's probably a scam. And those that do both are successful scams.
Well, to be fair, using billboards to advertise products and services that one uses on their computer seems less logical than using the very services that relate to the product being advertised. I get what you mean, but I also see why it makes more sense to advertise online services... Online.
@CaidicusProductions You're missing my point. They're willing to dump millions on youtuber ad reads but aren't willing to advertise in more public spaces with bigger viewership because they want to keep under the radar. The billboard was an example of a large public advertisement. It could have been a magazine ad or a radio/TV commercial or an advertising screen in Times Square. But they don't use that kind of advertising, which is odd because that's what most advertisers with their level of money would do.
Incogni is owned by NordVPN which is a large company. They understand their demographic is online and the best way to get their product out is to give sponsors. It's really not that hard to understand
6:28 or the scarier notion; Data leak contains the information of when you're asleep leaving you most vulnerable to break ins, theft, identity fraud or other crimes.
All this spying shit and I still get ads for things i’ve never once asked for. Adding cause i remember: As a gay man, i managed to influence my sisters ads to start showing her (a straight women) gay male dating ads. Dont share devices but they do be spying, just... really, really badly.
i regularly get ads in spanish despite not speaking it. and like, i’m delighted that these advertisers are recognizing and embracing that english isn’t the only language spoken in the US, but…how do you have so much data on me and still not know i don’t speak spanish??? 😭
Hitting the nail. If at least they wouldn't just push botfarm AI mobile game ads every single fucking time, I don't care if I get served ads that don't interest me, but at least let them be somewhat human world related ads and not this fake dead internet style slop.
I routinely get ads in Spanish. I don’t speak or understand Spanish. Avoiding paying for ads to someone who can’t understand them should be the number one priority of these companies, yet I still get ads in Spanish. It makes me think they clearly aren’t as smart as they think they are…
That's quite simply because nobody in any court or political arena has ever filed a motion to declare, or raised the question of whether your personal information is your personal property and your personal copyright & personal trademark. And nobody has done it because there's a lot of money in not asking the question, and a lot of money in getting rid of the politician who files the motion.
Data can be collected from anything or anywhere, depending on what you're looking for. E.g. the device you wrote your comment from (PC, laptop, phone, smart fridge, etc) is a data point. How can you own that? If I go into a store and the salesperson notices the brand of watch I have, he has data that could possibly be useful to him. You can't quantify a dollar amount or determine if he's allowed to do that.
It's because people freely leak or even give out this data routinely, all the time. They _don't care_ to keep the data to themselves, or otherwise they would. It's not that these companies are stealing the data, they're simply vacuuming up the massive pile of breadcrumbs that people are leaving all over the place.
@hamzajafri4551 "How can you own that?" By informing yourself, learning how the device works, learning how to use it properly, and being selective with what you reveal to the world about yourself. If you don't want that guy to see what kind of watch you're wearing, then you cover it up, or take it off before you go into the store.
I live in the EU and i was curious what these databrokers collect and checked on a few free services. The US is really creepy. Edit: due to YT censorship my reply has been deleted. EU countries have surveillance too. But for companies does not allow to collect and sell data how US companies do, without the consent of users and often with malicious intent.
Nah US is pretty good place. 99% of the "services" collecting data are not worth using. Google is collecting your data right now, yet you still use it, no government regulation can protect you from your own actions.
GDPR is a lie. It only gives you the right to sue. Not any actually rights. Good luck suing because someone knows a data point about you. Plus, most things can be exempted. Plus the time taken to read all policies and updates is to large to be doable They will only act if its an entire class of people. Like black people or something.
@benayers8622 well every country has their surveillance programs. The major difference is that big corpos in the US is selling your data against your will and against your benefit.
@_KnuXles I've never used an extension, I just manually skip all sponsors automatically. They're usually 60 or 120 seconds, I've got the keypresses down. I'm baffled whenever people talk about sponsor segments as if they actually watch them all the way through.
@incognitoburrito6020 I also cringe when I see people saying "This is the only channel I watch the adverts for!" like it means anything. Idc if they made the ad read in to a song; I'm skipping it
Use the Brave browser. Blocking ads and trackers is built into it. It's built on the same platform as chrome. I've not seen an ad on youtube in like 7 years. I'm serious.
aside from "great" ios where doing this is a pain in the ass, installing an adblocker for your browser will take 1 minute. I don't remember when it was the last time I saw an ad on a site.
20:01 That is a very poor shredder. For any sort of privacy you need a crosscut shredder. It doesn't just turn the paper into ribbons, but also cuts the ribbons so it's more liek confetti
@TheJttv was it sorting through one papers bits or multiple papers? Also how did the information from eqch bit get into the AI software, like a picture or a 3d scan?
@TheJttv Most people who'd dig thru your mail wouldn't have the resources or want to put in the effort. Why do that when there are easier suckers to catch?
@amosmoses5630 i know they can do atleast a bag. And they need to be laid out in a picture or scanner. None of this is new. Tech has existed for a a while
17:56 not to mention. If your applying for a lot of jobs. You get texts from random numbers all the time. So it's even harder to tell if it's legit or not
Applying to jobs is a privacy nightmare. You can be the most careful person in the world, no social media, no online purchases, no smart devices, but if you need a job you need to give a laundry list of incredibly specific personal data to sometimes hundreds of companies that have no legal obligation to you because you're just an applicant, not an employee.
Try to search your local representative information online, find all of his informations, his family included, tell him that you found it online and it was all collected without his consent, I think it should be pretty clear.
Why don't we en-masse do this. Suddenly it will become illegal to amass data on... well, at least the "important people" I wonder if they will stoop so low as to help us poor folks
Why don't we en-masse do this. Suddenly it will become illegal to amass data on... well, at least the "important people" I wonder if they will stoop so low as to help us poor folks
It's crazy how much stuff you can gather about someone with some specific google searches. A good rule to follow, is that if you don't want information to be used against you, don't share it online, anywhere really. Like people are surprised when they get unwanted visitors or phone calls, yet they blatantly post all that information on their social media pages xd
Give your kid a super common, anonymous name. I have three first names. When I run a paid background report on me, it says I've been a professor, a trucker, a felon, a boat captain, a waiter, had 5 wives, and 6 kids etc etc. None of those are true, they just mix up the common name.
My partner has a very common first name and a last name that I'd never heard of before I'd met him. However, he has been in a waiting room where they called his first name and 5 ppl stood up. They added the last initial and 3 stayed standing. They added the full last name and 3 remained standing. It was only after they listed the full birthdate that they clarified who they were calling back. He wasn't related to any of the other ppl with the same name as him. They didn't check middle names cuz that clinic didn't have that on their records. And I honestly thought I had a fairly unique last name most of my life until I learned that it's actually a pretty common German last name - even in the US. My first name was unique for the first half of my life, but around the time I was in high school, it became popular, so now there's a ton of ppl about 15-20 years younger than me with the same first name. It's kinda disorienting to hear your name in public when you grew up with the expectation that ppl would just assume your name was... a similar but very different first name. I still bear a grudge against the letter "d." Yes, I know it's irrational, but there is no "d" in my name - first, middle, or last!
I used to be my job to anonymize data when requested, if you don’t live in the EU or California these companies don’t have to legally delete any of your data. Currently the only laws I am aware of that require deletion are GDPR in the EU and the CCPA in California. Seeing ads like that annoyed me so much bc I know how impossible it is for the majority of people to actually get their data deleted. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. That’s really all you can do. I’ve been saying this for years!!! Thank you for this video.
the enforcement of those laws is dubious at best. Remember all your data doesn't just live in the EU, even if you do. It's harvested and sent to massive data centers in places like China where they don't care about laws of western nations, we're the enemy.
#1 rule to remember: copying stolen data is FREE. That's how they got it in the first place. #2: this won't negate any times they already sold your data even if they actually delete it, which I don't believe they will.
@marhawkman303 In most cases these companies didn't steal the data. The problem is that we are all agreeing to the fine print terms and conditions which allows all the service providers to share this data with partners for profit. "Partners" = data brokers. We allow it, without realizing it.
Had to rewind the video to check if my brain was playing tricks on me, since I immediately clocked those few notes but the rest of the music doesn't match. Amazing how just five notes can have that power even out of context.
as someone who shops at target and lives in atlanta georgia and drinks coffee and listens to punk rock music and have a 5-10 mile commute and owns a playstation and loves dogs and is currently watching an educational video about privacy on youtube, i am very concerned
In Europe, under the GDPR, individuals have the right not only to request the restriction of processing (Article 18) but also to request the complete erasure of their personal data (Article 17) - the so-called “right to be forgotten” - meaning organizations may be obliged to cease processing entirely, unless there are overriding legal grounds to retain the data.
Yes, Europe has very serious privacy laws which are different than the USA. Maybe because in living memory they saw governments hunt down and murder millions of people because of demographic data (e.g. ethnicity or political views). But, the flip side is that also makes it much easier for predators and criminals to remain undetected in their society (can't be outed). It also creates huge burdens on companies which impacts jobs. I've worked with Europeans across 5+ countries for 20 years now. They don't actually delete the data under GDPR in many cases (e.g. on all the backup tapes from previous years? come on) they just flag it for "don't report". Which is what these data brokers are doing. There are no perfect solutions, there are only tradeoffs.
No, these regulations don't exists because there was nazism so we don't want personal data collected. These regulations doesn't apply to governments by the way. If I ask the government to erase my data because of the GDPR they laugh at me. These regulations are created to use them as a trade weapon against U.S. because im EU we haven't a single worthy big tech company that could potentially be fined by hundreds of millions of dollars for infringing those regulation.
@JkGreyWolf-21 ANd how many pedos are there? You want to trade a few of them for the security of millions. And I work for a company that is not even in the EU(difference between Europe and EU) and when we get a request for deleting information then that information gets scrubbed. Im not sure what kind of backwater companies you have worked with but if you dont comply with GDPR it can mean a fine that is equal to 10% of yearly revenue.
Good on paper, impossible in practice. So maaaaany places and shell companies where that data can be found. There will always be copies on your data, which will simply be reshared/resold. On top of that, not every country recognises or applies these rules/laws. They know your desires, needs, psych profile, sexuality and what kind of stuff you ever watch(ed). Up untill now this information is only being used to deeply manipulate you and society, but the scarier thing is, that when the country you live in, will fall to fascism. Suddenly any arbitrary trait might make you "the outsider" or enemy. Whether its your stance on abortion, schooling, sexuality or whatever. People have been prosecuted for the stupidest of things before. It's just that when some trait becomes societies new enemy to prosecute, they will immediately be able to find the people with that certain trait or thoughts.
@JkGreyWolf-21 GDPR isnt perfect but its the best solution we have at the moment, gun laws in usa may prevent serious crimes but it will also increase the number of murders every year.. Same logic, the gun laws is the best solution in usa to solve a issue but its also a factor that make the issue worse..
Something that I’ve always noticed is that is true for any company or product: if their product wasn’t shady, then they wouldn’t be advertising themselves through youtube sponsorships. If they have to resort to leveraging parasocial relationships to get consumers invested in their product, then they’re compensating for something. Also, if their product is free but they still have the funds to purchase these sponsorships, then they’re still making money off of the consumers using their product. Most likely, that’ll be in a way that the consumers can’t control and wouldn’t approve of
I disagree, it's not that they are sponsoring through RUclips that's the problem. It's the fact that it's non-targeted ads. Having a security broker or VPN sponsor someone like TekIt who deals with scammers, or VPNs sponsoring language channels so that you can access other country's media. That's targeted. It makes sense. But having a VPN ad in the middle of a video about why whales might be going extinct, or a playthrough of a 30 year old game makes no sense. RUclips sponsorships aren't bad, it's the ones that sponsor everyone and everywhere and clearly throw millions away paying for those sponsors that reveal something shady is going on behind the lines
@RoderickVI You're right, my bad. I was specifically thinking of the more notorious brands that I associate with youtuber sponsorship reads, the ones that have real use to a targeted audience are generally fine
@RoderickVI Even then, can you think of a _good brand_ that also advertises on RUclips? I can't think of a single one. (and especially in the category of e.g. VPNs, none of the (two) good ones advertise).
@mibdev There are some new games that use Content Creators that play these types of games that sponsor them to show off theirs. These I would consider good, since they both make their advertisements content for the audience, as well as show it to people who are interested in that stuff anyways
This video is INCREDIBLY well made. As a cybersecurity student, thank you for getting this information out there for the general public and those getting started in cybersecurity careers! I learned a lot from this.
@astronautwashere thanks! I thought I might have overdone it with the rainbow background making MLG clippy hard to see, but I guess being overwhelming is the point of the aesthetic 😂
Thanks for acknowledging how long it takes to move away from Gmail. I am six months into my transition away and it feels like I have such a long way to go still.
Hey, data privacy professional here. Great video overall, but I wanted to flag a few inaccuracies toward the end. You mentioned that the core issue is the collection of data itself, rather than the ability to delete it. That idea is actually known as “Data Minimization.” Maryland recently became the first state to pass a law that enshrines this principle. EPIC and Consumer Reports have also proposed model legislation that centers data minimization. As for GDPR, it does include a very minor data minimization requirement in Article 5(1)(c), but the regulation also allows data processing under a “legitimate interest” basis-which is a broad loophole. Economic benefit, for example, can qualify as a legitimate interest, which means companies can still process your data despite the minimization standard.
GDPR is great but definitely has some flaws, the fact that checking what data is being held requires a 'Subject Access Request' but that involves handing over more data than they have on record in the first place, seems paradoxical. Also the only time i've made a deletion request under GDPR (TV Licencing) it was declined on the grounds of the information being required, i could likely refer the case to the ICO but feels like a waste of time when the only data they have is available from the land registry anyway That said though, i would still take a flawed GDPR over what the rest of the world has to deal with
I would instead prefer legislation to make it illegal to sell, share or distribute data which might involve, even only inferentially, personal data. Collection of data isn't the real problem. They only ask for more data than they reasonably should have because they plan to sell it to data brokers. If it cannot be distributed, free or otherwise, outside of the individual company, they wouldn't need to collect it at all. Just remove loopholes by making parent companies out of scope for use, and all data involving personal data (even inferentially) to be deleted in case of a merger or acquisition.
@kelly4187 Definitely to sell, but if you make it illegal to share data, then companies that need to share data to operate (which is most of them) will not be able to operate. For instance a car dealership needs to share data with financing companies to get you a loan. The main problem is sharing information that isn't necessary in the essential functions of the services they provide. Also, one thing people have to brace for is that if it is illegal to sell data then many services and products, including most electronics, will skyrocket in price because companies will no longer be making an income from them beyond selling the actual service.
The fact you can profess to hold such a clearly BS title as "privacy professional" and it even come off as partially serious means there is no hope. The only privacy professional is the hermit who moved to a peak in the Himalayas to live in solitude in 1971. Get out of here with your snake oil, salesman.
Now if only he could've resisted adding the sun glare and blurring that comes with overheads (though not _this_ bad. Seriously, dude, focus your "lens.")
@lennyjazzythis is a reminder that you're watching an american video. Many of the topics that are talked about don't even apply to most western counties like those in the EU. Russia, china and india are not even considered part of the target audience.
I have always acted on the principle "don't put anything in an email or sms that you wouldn't put on a postcard". As for data, it's now impossible not to have your information sold, especially since many governments are no longer using safe, onshore storage for stuff. The response is to not respond to ads. Just because you see an ad, doesn't mean you need to buy the thing being advertised.
The fact that the adverts on this video were Apple Watch advertising early heart disease identification and electric toothbrushes was the cherry on the irony cake
Who in their right mind would connect a mattress to the internet. I don't want facebook to know when my mattress is being used and in what ... ways ...
Commenting before watching: I always distrust any company whose outputs can't be verified. If a company sells me a computer I can do stuff on the computer to make sure it works, but if they sell me data removal there's no way to me to check if the data was actually removed from the internet, or if the data even existed in the first place and they aren't just making up fake data to delete.
Those were my thoughts too. Macafee used to pop up windows saying "371947 bugs found on your computer!!" And yet, I was still using it perfectly fine.....that's a loooooot of bugs for me not having any problems....🤔
I mean, there _are_ ways for you to check...? A decent number of data brokers have some degree of public-facing interface that lets you get small amounts of info about a person from their databases.
Perhaps you should check before writing then. 1) if they offer a service and don't even try to do it half decently, they are liable of scamming and can be sued 2) You can discover if they removed the data by submitting a request of your own to the data brokers that data removal systems claim they have submitted the request on your behalf. In the EU and UK they must comply and tell you if they have your data. 3) you cannot easily remove your data from the internet. To do that you should have always lived completely off grid and probably not even that. These services only remove data from known data broker services or companies that are not public-facing and that are sometimes used by scammers
for the example at 21:33, doesn't this deletion of incorrect/outdated information make the remaining information more valuable? Less valuable to the customer, and refines the remaining data set for the broker
Looks like the algorithm has decided to bless this video, as it popped outta nowhere in my feed but I was immediately hooked by the high production value. And the amount of views compared to the previous videos shows that too.
Yes, was random for me too, as per usual, I just scrolled on by... but the Channel named caught my eye at the last second so I gave it a go, found good stuff 👍
It caught my eye because I watched a criticism of Honey, and then a channel I watch used Incogni as a sponsor. I didn't know you paid for Incogni's services at first, so I questioned where the capitalist motive was and wondered if they were a scammer like Honey. I hoped to find out the truth from this random video. Finding out Incogni is a paid for service--but a useless one--is both reassuring and disheartening. 🙃
Better. You paid these people and gave them your data so it could be "deleted." This only proves the data is correct and attached to a paying -sucker- customer.
Using phones, internet, and social apps, and then paying for privacy is like paying a guy to protect your fishing equipment while you use a giant colander as a boat.
Ok, wonderful video, but can we talk about how his hair gets in the way of the text because it's blocking the projector? That is some absolutely gnarly detail and I love every second of it.
All these parents giving small children ipads and smartphones expecting them to come out "themselves" but with all their information, browsing habits and eye what they watch and play being sold to others that same day... you wouldnt trust your child with a stranger, yet for some reason parents trust their kids with millions of strangers on their smartphones and computers.
![Игровая смерть - это механика [Страшно, вырубай!]](/img/1.gif)
To continue my pursuit of free and open information, I've published all my research notes: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/Data+Deletion+Services+Video
UPDATE: DeleteMe responded to my video: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/DeleteMe+responded+to+my+video
Incogni also responded to the video: publish.obsidian.md/rejectconvenience/Reject+Convenience+Website/Blog/05-2025/Incogni's+response
Also, just in case it wasn't clear in the video, I am not being critical of any creators that take these sponsors. Many of them have no idea about the topics we brought up in this video, and these companies are very good at misguiding creators. Please please please DO NOT harass any creators that take these sponsors. If you want more information regarding my opinion on creators and sponsors, please watch this video: ruclips.net/video/R3aTL38wAfU/video.html
Quick update on these data deletion services, if you live in CA, you can get this all done by the state's new DROP system. They support over 500 data brokers, which is almost double that of these services, and it's totally free. Learn more here: privacy.ca.gov/drop/
Corrections:
1 - 5:17 "if you've read a few health related articles using Google Chrome Google will sell that information as well"
According to their privacy policy, Google will not show you health-related ads, however, they do share health related data, so this is halfway true.
2 - Someone pointed out that they canceled their subscription to Incogni as a result of this video, and they were not prompted to contact support, so that may be resolved since I wrote that and published the video. Gotta count the wins where we can!
3 - This is less of a correction and more of a clarification. There are certain articles that claim that Gmail does not scan your emails anymore, but this is only covering that they removed this from their Terms of Service. Google's privacy policy still clearly states that: "Communications data, such as emails, if you use our services to send and receive messages." is used for "Advertising: Google processes information to provide advertising, including online identifiers, browsing and search activity, and information about your location and interactions with advertisements. This keeps Google’s services and many of the websites and services you use free of charge", so to summarize (my favorite), Google does still scan your emails for advertising.
4 - There's been some solid discussion in one of these comments that I might have misread the privacy policy for eight sleep. Their policy isn't terribly clear in my opinion on defining what the source of the data collection is, the app or the mattress itself. That said, it is still clear that in either case, they do collect and share usage data to meta and many other companies for the purposes of advertising and more, and that is for sure done through the app itself. I will want to pull this one up in a live stream for us to have a much more in depth conversation, but as it stands, I may be incorrect on the source of that data collection, but it is collected and shared regardless. There's a reasonable argument that this is a paranoid interpretation, however, so if you are considering one of these products, please read the privacy policy yourself and make an informed decision on your own. It's hard to keep in check at times, given how many of them I read for this channel, so if you disagree, please let me know!
5 - Surprisingly, Amazon does NOT sell user information (even by CCPA standards, which I really was not expecting). I still don't like them as a company for a wide array of reasons (union busting, employee abuse, the whole dystopia thing they got going for them), but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong about something! Here's the source: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GC5HB5DVMU5Y8CJ2
6 - DeleteMe appears to have "fixed" the issue where their privacy policy wasn't able to be read if you had strict settings in Firefox. However, they decided add a barrier between you clicking the privacy policy button on their home page and you being able to read the *actual* policy. Not very privacy friendly, if you ask me, but hey, at least they're not blocking it anymore. Gotta count the wins where we can, I guess.
you forgot location information data brokers
@VaxisPraxis From what I could tell, a majority of those fell under "marketing"
I work as a private investigator specializing in OSINT, and also do cybersecurity work. I haven't actually watched this video yet but I'm glad to see somebody talking about this. I've always scoffed at the absurd fees people are paying these companies given I can find all their information anyway lmao. People in general REALLY underestimate their digital footprint and how linked it is to their IRL existence. Just about anybody that vocally cares about their privacy online has already doxxed themselves in a dozen ways.
Finished video, W overall
do you think people are generally more motivated to go for more privacy as the companys that do this have been doing more and more by time that its reached a boiling point where people are even moving to linux as an example
@CosmicStellar1 I think it helps that we're starting to see a noticeable decline in quality and care. People just want stuff to work with as little resistance as possible. Windows has been getting worse and worse over the years, but Linux has been getting better and better. There is still resistance in leaving the platform that you know, but there is a tipping point, and I suspect we're seeing a lot of that right now.
honestly the idea of privacy being a service that has to be paid for is dystopian on its own even without the scam aspect
Do you want to live off the grid and be totally private from the outside world? Well for the low monthly payment of $29.99 you can, all you have to do is create an account and pay with a secure bank card and we will do the rest!
100%. They called me strange for wanting my internet anonymity, that's long dead and gone now but that anonymity was privacy, and that privacy was so valuable
The Mirror (UK newspaper) now hides 'privacy' settings (cookies) behind a paywall! They're calling it 'Privacy Plus'
I'm unsure if any other newspaper outlets are doing the same, but I wouldn't be surprised if they all adopted this very soon, even though it's still disgusting!
@AdamOwenBrowning i always screw with my data. diffrent names, diffrent adresses, nothing i put online is consistant. makes finding whoi actualy am, my actual adress, everything hard to track properly. is it fullproof? no. but sofar its kept me safe. im a ghost for online data.
EXACTLY, most of these fools use the apps and hardware like their phones that always manipulates them like a Bug Brother. They are always told to spend more instead of saving money and living better lives.
I almost took a deleteme sponsorship and when I backed out, the agency would NOT take no for an answer - then I super duper didn't want to work with them. Thanks for making this video!
Another marketing agency reached out to me a couple weeks ago asking if I wanted to do a sponsor for DeleteMe and I was like... uhh I don't think you want that lol
@rejectconvenience I had to say no at least 4 times before they took no for an answer
@That_Chemistwdym wouldn’t take no for an answer, just ignore??
I started incogni off a RUclips sponsor about a month ago. I used to get 4-6 spam calls a day and now I get none. I also canceled my subscription without any hassel.
@willydejesus823the guy you’re talking to went crazy on home-made drugs, so i would just not listen to him.
yet another instance to reinforce why you shouldn't trust youtube sponsors
That's a pretty general statement. There are many services I've used that I started using before ever seeing them as sponsors, nord is one example. I use their entire ecosystem. So I can't help but both be skeptical and give the benefit of doubt at times with sponsors, it depends on the service and how clear it is how they make their money.
Well 90% of the time thats true. Seatgeek has been a great experience for me and Has saved me a bunch of money on concert tickets. And nord vpn is pretty valid.
For real I remember asking my brother why he thinks he needs a VPN
vpns can be useful in some situations, there’s a reason they exist
People talking about VPNs... Lame. Now.... PCB Way. There's a cool sponsor.
having the patron names scroll over the desk as if they're actually being projected into the room is such a flex i love it
It's getting harder to pull off haha
Paying to have your name in a video and putting the names of people who paid you in a video are both examples of psychotic anti-social behaviour.
@ErdrickHero I’d rather that than shitty sponsors, adhell, or other shady monetary sources
@ErdrickHero I don't think those words mean what you think they mean.
@ErdrickHeropeople aren't paying for the credit. they're paying to help a creator. the credit is just a little thanks
"Why would a data broker delete your information" THANK YOU, I've been trying to explain this to my friends and family
Folks probably assumed "Because the deletion service made the only alternative Prison" and never questioned how Incogni would do that...
i mean, depending on where you are there are quite severe fines for doing exactly that
well they would be required by EU laws (GDPR) if they operate in europe, even if the company is american. Though they wouldn't be required to DELETE it, just to ANONYMIZE it.
Anonymity doesn't really mean much when you think about it legally, after-all if the definition isn't concrete a good lawyer which these companies do have, can just say we assigned a internal case number to each piece of data, in which case it would be trivial to find out anything they want about you still but at least then your identity is "Anonymous" after-all it isn't directly associated to your name even if it has every other bit of PII required to find that out. And that's just one angle a lawyer can take it's really not hard at all to break this system
@FrameEnderEnderNation
Good thing we don't use that term in the rgpd prefering the use of personal data
personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;
pseudonymisation is also defined in rgpd
Anytime something becomes a RUclips sponsor, I immediately begin to question it.
What about bombas socks
I mean, youtube for us is what tv was 40 or 50 years ago. It's the new medium to advertise propaganda to billions of people. Honestly, we should question all type of propaganda in general.
I was just about to write this comment 😄
@Hayanomie I question ANY an ALL advertisement because they are trying to get you to buy something and likely over selling their product. The best ones are the ones that spread only via word of mouth.
Same
Back in 2020, my aunt died of cancer. Most of the family couldn’t travel to the funeral because the lockdown was beginning, so instead, right before she passed, one of my uncles set up a family group chat on Facebook so we could all message our goodbyes and her daughter read them to her. My aunt was a quilter, and in my message I mentioned how I always admired her beautiful quilted blankets. Almost immediately, I started getting Etsy ads on Facebook for quilts. I was also streaming Gravity Falls a lot during this time, so a lot of the quilts the ads showed me were Gravity Falls themed.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you and your family are recovering.
Sorry for your loss.
And 100% Facebook uses messages to advertise.
My best friend and I have tested it via Messenger and voice via Messenger.
We would talk about how cool, or how much we need some random bs things as we noticed after a gaming session we would get odd af ads.
And we trialled with it some of the most out there stuff that neither of us even knew the name of. Like how it's so hard to buy that amazing tasting rotting whale you can get in Alaska.
Only talked about it then wow it appears on fb and Google ads. I could go on. But it's scummy. Skype also seems to do it.
Had a similarly creepy experience around the same time. In January of 2020, I was living in China but visiting family back in the US over Chinese New Year. I was talking to a friend on WeChat who wanted me to buy a specific American brand of Whey Protein and bring it back to Beijing with me when I returned.
After that conversation on WeChat (we spoke via video chat, btw), immediately after I hung up the call, I started getting ads on Facebook for Whey Protein that specifically mentioned shipping options to China. I literally froze when it registered what I was seeing and deleted Facebook from my phone after that. So creepy.
@kaseywahl in 2018 or 2019 I was talking with a coworker who had a problem with his leg, about maybe getting a cool cane.
A couple hours later I went to the kitchen to eat and I was watching RUclips and got an ad for a cane with flashlight and slip resistant tip.
Dystopian and scary
2015: I bet there will be flying cars in the future!
2025: Your mattress has been shut down because it is not connected to the internet.
All the dystopia with none of the technology
because your subscription payment was declined
is the mattress sinking too much or not at all
Your heated seats in your $90,000 car don’t work because you need to update your payment method.
It would be funny if it wasn’t true.
GET OUT!!
In my psychology undergrad program, a marketing psychologist came to speak with my class saying they can literally tell when someone is becoming/entering a manic episode and can change advertising to higher price and higher impulse buy products and services so as a consumer is beginning to enter an impulse control struggle time, they receive riskier advertising options. This person spoke to my class in... 2007. The tech has only advanced since then.
Oh 😳
What an evil creature.
Shit like this is why I left marketing studies. It can be done ethically but they choose not to. Despicable people.
@QTwoSix "Evil" would be keeping it as intellectual property and not sharing it with future psychologists who can leverage the research to benefit humanity....
I have often wondered how they prevent invalid data and noise. I sometimes put things in that don't represent me just to mess with the system. Plus why I choose things may not represent why I'm buying something. For example, I may be buying for a client or friend.
I cant imagine being a small child trying to DEVELOP my own identity in this type of internet climate, much less protect it.
There's a topic for a future video...
@rejectconvenienceYou're cooking!
A small child shouldn't be developing an identity ON THE INTERNET in the first place. IMHO 16 and over should be allowed online, not younger. In the US it's 13 and over allowed; in the UK it's 16 and over. Why is that so difficult for parents to abide by?
Shouldn’t be doing that in the first place
@20NewJourney23it's hard to not be on the internet as someone under 25. you'll be missing out on a ton of in jokes, and people will probably just shove it in your face anyways.
I signed up for the 2 year plan with incogni. 6 months into it emailing back and forth with their support team it was revealed to me that they don't have many NA based brokers they have access to. I then asked why they are advertising on NA based YT accounts? To which they didn't reply. Suffice to say, I didn't resign and have shared my story as often as possible,
wow
And continue being a righteous knight. Serve your words on your experience far and wide on any video sponsored by Incogni
What's NA?
@quasarulas3968north America
@quasarulas3968 I’m assuming it means “North America”: like the US, Canada, Mexico
What they DO tell you: “we will ask on your behalf” aka “we have no enforcement powers because you have no enforceable rights”.
Seriously! Unless you want to be placed into some kind of twisted conservatorship with Incogni, I guess 😂
Legal liability for lawsuit, I guess; technically they can't legally "delete on your behalf" without additional information, so they add Sranje to the fine print so they aren't legally liable should they not be able to provide the service they're advertising.....
At least, that's my perspective from a non US citizen
In Calif the state law says the broker must remove it in 45 days or they are subject to fines.
They don't need enforcement powers. They only need a law in the region you're in to have enforcement powers. That's why they only sell these services in regions where there are laws that require companies to delete your data upon request, like in the EU.
Rights matter not to those in the big seats.
The sooner one realizes this the sooner we can establish actual rights
You dont need incogni or deleteme or whatever to delete your data. You need the European Union
The EU is one of the last bastions out there that can regulate data & tech-related matters to any meaningful degree (if there's more, lmk!). I hope they prevail in efforts to actually make a positive change!
The same EU that's forced "Accept Cookies" prompts on every web site? The same EU that wants to block free speech on the internet?
Fuck no.
I'd rather let advertisers play their games than give Brussels any more importance
Me in the worst take competition: @BlueGamingRage
no shit..violating GDPR laws maens the EU can hand down a fine with like 10 0s in the number.....srsly its no joke....they could banrupt a company if they wished....
Reminds me of the article "How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did".
YES! I remember the day when this article hit! I was in a marketing class and we spent the whole day talking about the ethics of it, and how its a slippery slope. It was actually THIS article that changed my entire outlook on data privacy.
@GothamPossum I also remember this in my marketing class. That entire book was an eye-opener and a huge reason why I began to lose faith in capitalism in general.
And because RUclips won't let me make another comment on this thread, the book was McGraw-Hill's Introduction to Marketing, the most recent edition I think.
Holy hell😅
I just wanted to remind people that while Target's pregnancy prediction algorithm was proven to be real, the whole 'angry father who later apologizes' narrative is likely false or embellished at best.
The only source comes from an employee at Target. The story never gives any verifiable details about the incident, meanwhile all the articles covering the story constantly insert commentary which praises Target's advanced algorithms and customer service.
The story also ends too neatly, when most people wouldn't even bother contacting nor apologizing to a corporate entity, especially one that is 'spying' on their daughter.
@lucinaembl2242good context. I also hope more people question the narrative of throwing the algorithm into a good light. While I’m not anti capitalist, I really don’t think people should be siding with the algorithm here. It exists to put your data and therefore yourself at risk to profit off of. Data is the most valuable commodity today, and companies individuals and governments steal it from you to make huge profit off of it every day while putting you at risk and giving you no commission. So the algorithm is not a good thing for consumers.
Not using AI has become a mark of quality and earnestness. Seeing that message right from the start let me know I was in for a genuinely good video and channel.
same man saw that instantly subscribed
My shitty ass video finally have value now. I have to thank AI bros for lowering average value so my own seem like good one.
Not to mention how much privacy violation went into making the most popular ai models
@NicoleColenico wdym by that? Isn't the training data public?
@Goldy01Most of it probably is public. But data from private chats, data leaks and small personal stuff also made its way into training LMMs.
Google, for example, collects data from Gboard users all the time, under the pretence of making the correction tools better.
I've worked at a place that maintained a database, and we occasionally would get requests to delete personal data. My boss would tell me not to do so, because we wanted the database to be as big as possible. So these companies send an email saying "delete this" and my employer would ignore it, and that's that. The user's money is being wasted on such a company.
In many jurisdictions, that would be very illegal.
@sujimayneonly really in Cali or EU
And that is why in the EU the fines are extremely high for violating GDPR.
@Brent-jj6qi... and Mexico, and most of the Commonwealth, plus some others in Latin America. So, yeah, many.
@sujimayne In many jurisdictions, a lot of things are illegal but still done because people don't complain.
Think about it, the data delete services are being paid regardless so they're not invested in having the customer's legitimate interest in mind beyond doing the bare minimum. Company has little reason to respond to these companies because there's always ways to drag things out even if it goes to court it's very difficult to actually prove anything was done (or not done) out of malice rather than accident.
And for the consumer, they have no clue whether the data delete services are actually being vigilant with enforcing lawful demands or not.
At the end of the day, it still comes back to "If you genuinely care about your data, don't rely on others to manage who has / don't have access to it. You gotta do it yourself, because there isn't a non-partial entity in that space to do it for you.
I applied for an LLC and the very first piece of business mail I received was a threatening letter telling me to send a check to a PO box for "compliance." I actually received the scam before I received my certificate. Stay safe people 🙏
Bought a house....yeah. Hello Fresh sends junk mail, I found out. Among others. Several for businesses that don't service our area.
I hate our government sells our data.
@trashcatlinolyou can unsubscribe from the hello fresh junk mail, its a well hidden google forms lmao
Because the government also sells your information.
@tonymouannes No, they don’t. Public records are public. Scammers just abuse public records. Are you arguing that no government records should be public? The problem is scammers engaging in scams, not the idea that there should be transparency in government.
@stillmoms governments should actually just not exist? But also yes records about random people and their details shouldn’t be publicly accessible actually
I’ll never get over the fact I googled about peanut allergy stuff and got peanut butter related ads for a week.
devilish xD
Google really just told you to rope. Live out of spite brother.
That's just plain cruel.
My man this made me laugh all the way in england.
During my work interview one the people told us she loves using Google. 😅
Genuinely my first thought was, oh they find and get rid of all your information? So for them to find it, I have to first give them ALL MY INFORMATION. So more people have my data? 💀
Now if only people could put 2 and 2 together on vpns. They're a scam too.
@trustworthydan VPNs do have real uses (avoiding region locks and committing piracy, for one (two?)) and there are ones that aren't sketchy. They're just not advertised on youtube.
Duh. How can someone find and select something without reference material? How is this a surprise?
@trustworthydan The only reason to get a VPN is to torrent pirated content online without your ISP knowing.
They can't advertise that, so they go with a bunch of nonsense about "a lack of security" you can "protect yourself from" by using their service.
Nonsense, of course.
At least the vpns that ask for your personal info.
The *very first* thing I thought when seeing ads for those companies was "and what happens when you cancel your service?"
The first thing I was thinking was; how do I even know that they're effectively removing my personal data in the first place? The only reason I could hire them would be for the convenience but to get my money's worth I would need to check on them that they're doing what they're supposed to. How do I know the data brokers are actually deleting the information even?
There's so many unknowns in this game. And all these groups have a vested interest to obfuscate their actions as well.
They probably get nasty and go make matters worse for you. If I had to guess.
You're also creating and supporting large companies with a massive financial interest to lobby politicians into not regulating data brokers. Hell, if I was Incogni, I would setup a data broking service on the side and sell the data of everyone who does not pay my ransom.
@Nilpferdschafthis. It's like Intuit(TurboTax) and their incessant lobbying against tax reform. It's full on regulatory capture and it's ridiculous.
My first thought, every time I see one of those ads is, "who, in their right mind, puts their personal data online?"
I've been using a PC since 1979, and the Internet since '96, and I have never once done that.
Animating little 'imperfections' like the projection bleeding onto the desk a little, having a glare from lighting on the tv screen, and changing sun glare at the end delights me for some unknown reason.
Probably because it's a very "human" imperfection that doesn't exist in AI slop.
Projection doesn't only bleed onto the desk, but also onto the guy's hair and face. Such a nice touch honestly!
Not to mention the foot of a possible whiteboard in the lower left corner of the video. Such tiny details are what makes this creator so awesome.
The realistic effects stood out to me too as really cool too. Contrasted with the lack of realism with the narrator or host, it was a little weird-looking though. I'd love to know more about how this was created behind the scenes.
@miro.georgiev97 what does this even have to do with ai. It's just a show of a high effort video, not everything is about ai
I can't believe we live in a world where my mattress is spying on me.
Ha! Imagine if it was just your mattress..
Fridge, stove, lightbulbs, toiletts, locks, ...
the reason i avoid all of those smart appliances like the plage
Orwell couldn’t have come up with this sh*t. But hey, it’s okay because it’s not political, but economical actors doing it! /s
youd be institutionalized for saying this fourty years ago
Question, lets say your mattress is spying on you.... How is that harming you? Now you might see an ad for a sleeping pill instead of totally random ads for say womens tampoons, is that really going to bother you that much? Like what is the actual harm being done, Im assuming none other than "invasion of privacy" but again, whats the actual harm, how is your wallet or family being affected by seeing an advertisment that might actually be of interest to you?
There’s a _very_ old documentary called “Terms and Conditions” that explained how anonymized data can be combined to strip it of its anonymity. It was an eye opener.
Good documentary, but it's not "very old", it's from 2013.
@BinaryNinjaHippyBoi dude that's 12 years ago
@moshimeshowu747 2013 wasn't that long ago... right? right???
@BinaryNinjaHippyBoi May as well be a century in this day and age
@moshimeshowu747 12 years is not a large span of time. Tell me you're a teenager without telling me.
This is honestly the ideal video essay channel. “Here’s a problem. Here’s how to fix it. Here’s how you can. Here’s why you should.” No notes. Give this person all the money
I've had a simple rule for a while now: If a RUclipsr is shilling it, I don't want it. This has and continues to serve me quite well.
My rule: If a youtuber is shilling it, I'll be cautious about it.
And I will crossreference it and determine if the price is worth it.
@Appoxomostly agree, shouldn't reject everything sight unseen just because RUclipsrs are selling it.
HOWEVER in some cases you may not get much info simply "doing research." Did anyone know what Honey was doing before the big expose dropped? Was there any way to know? Probably not, in which case I'd fall back on a second rule of thumb: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. "Oh come on, they went to the effort of creating and maintaining an app that saves me money and they won't charge me a cent to use it? AND they can afford to advertise literally everywhere? What are they getting out of this deal???"
So, probably, do some research, but also trust your gut a bit, and in the absence of any clear evidence, maintain a healthy level of skepticism.
@notthecheatr23 It's much simpler to just reject everything youtbe has, as a scam.
It's just not worth your time to give them the benefit of the doubt. They will use that benefit of the doubt to make you cave in and buy.
That’s generally how I feel towards any advertisement, if there’s an ad for a product I’m now less likely to buy or use that product
RUclipsr sponsorship is the litmus test of shoddy products
So they're about as useful as I thought, good to know.
Also, it's clear you've had fun with all the extra art in the title screens, and it looks great! :D
Thank you! I've been wanting to stretch my blender legs a little more, and this seemed like a good way to break up the chapters :)
😊l
@rejectconvenienceit’s really artful work, I adore it!
@rejectconvenienceCurious about your process for animating the avatar. Did you use an automation tool? (Longtime 3ds Max user here, but experimenting with Blender now)
@manyworldsvideo This is 100% blender, including the edit of the stuff that is projected on the screens! I've been meaning to make a big old "how I make my videos" video on my second channel, so keep an eye out for that over there!
The "right to be forgotten," formally known as the "right to erasure" in EU law, allows individuals to request the removal of personal data from search engines and other platforms under certain circumstances. This right is a fundamental part of the European Union's data protection laws
Yea, because the EU actually protects its citizens. The US sees its citizens as products. That's why cons want us run "like a business"
So it works for Europeans? Or at least it should
@GigiBranconi
Yes it totally works. you just can cope past the legal paragraph and ask them to remove all your data. Thats all incogni do send emails automatically.
The problem being, data brokers can just ignore these requests and nothing happen
@todo9633exactly. Almost all the people with power to sue these “data brokers” don’t care that they are (or are profiting from) selling information.
This is so unreal to me. I spend my day at work redacting personally identifying information from public documents from as much as 50 years ago, and now that info is bought and sold every minute of every day.
Every second.
these yt sponsors exposed videos genuinely feel like therapy, thank you so much
now you don't even need BetterHelp anymore, how convenient
I agree
Why?
Ugh, they creep me out like nothing else.
This might just be my Europeaness talking, but I find the idea of companies taking advantage of people going through some of the worst times in their lives like that repulsive.
Disabling 3rd party cookies in your browser already makes a ton of difference.
Is there a way to auto disable any non-essential cookie? Like when a site ask me to accept them, I don't have to go unticking whatever it lets me untick, but does it by default?
It's so annoying when you visit a site just for one reason, one time, and then you get bombarded with the cookie sh1t and being asked to subscribe to the news feed or donate or whatever they want.
even with an adblocker, there are a lot of these idiotic time wasting popups that make me want to live in the woods without electricity.
@proximityclockworkx1572 theres multiple kinds of browser extensions for this. I use "i still dont care about cookies" on google chrome
EU regulations require them to ask, so likely no.
Before that they would just do it automatically.
Duck Duck Go is a great search browser!
You can work with scriptblockers to achieve this. But you have to learn how to configure them, otherwise its everytime a lot of work if you visit a site.
Ever since the honey scandal, I've been seeing more ads for these services in place of them. I've been waiting for a video going in depth on these data deletion services ever since because something just didn't sit right with me. Great video
Fun fact! There’s a New Honey!
It has the exact same schtick Honey did, but for some reason people don’t remember that “finding the best coupon codes for you” for free means they’re making their money off the user.
I legit saw an ad for this new company and flat out called out the RUclipsr for it being Honey 2.0. Hopefully someone else sees my comment and stays the heck away from em.
Yeah, honey, kind of bothered me… I would try to contact them and ask them what benefit they’re getting and how they’re making money because there’s no way they can keep their company going without making some kind of money selling something…
They wouldn’t be honest with me
I even late asked do you sell the data you collect to data brokers or someone else and they would not be honest with me. They told me that’s always free and they get no benefit out of it.
I told them no one is that philanthropic to make no money off of an app that they have to be making money somewhere .
Literally a few months later, it all came out they were selling your information and that’s how they were making. Most of the money is from people using their app to search for stuff.
I don’t mind the anonymous stuff being necessarily shared. It is still kind of weird, but the fact they wouldn’t own up to it bothers me.
The DeleteMe/Incogni services sound exactly like the Honey thing. All of a sudden, everyone is sponsored by these people. Something doesn’t sit right and I think there’s going to be more to it in the future
fume... no one talks about it... literally noone.
Install adblockers wherever you can.
That's one thing I like about Firefox: I can sandbox certain social media.
The pregnancy one led to me randomly receiving an unsolicited sample of formula right after a miscarriage. That was more than 10 years ago. That's what I needed. A formula company to remind me. It was messed up.
They still do this! Unsolicited formula showed up for me last year! I’ve never had kids or been pregnant but it irritated me so much! Pregnancy can be such a sensitive topic for so many reasons! It’s such a strange marketing tactic…
That's disgusting! Personal data shouldn't be used like this at all... My ckndolences
@SilverOnTheCloud Theyre trying to get the baby to stop drinking mama's so her's dry up and she's forced to buy. Youll see that was Nestle's strategy.
Imagine having to read through the privavy policy of YOUR BED in fear of the producer knowing when you make out...
I'd argue that the moment your bed has a privacy policy it's time to return it without even reading it - but that's just me as someone who reads pretty much all ToS & Privacy Policies I agree to, most people just skip through and say "Yes" just to complain afterwards.
@shapelessed or masturb8. Or when you cry.
If your bed comes with anything more than a box or receipt, it might be a good idea to not use it
lmfao any smartphone for almost 20years now will detect when you have sex or masturbate. as long as it's in the room it will be able to tell easier than you.
look it up.
have fun with that info.
To this day i still don't understand why companies are just allowed to lie about what their product actually does.
They're generally not. I don't think Incogni has lied about what their product does.
I feel like RUclips ads aren't regulated to the same extent as those on TV and radio. This should change.
That's why they use RUclipsrs - it's the same scam MLMs run. "We didn't tell them to say that! They're not an employee!"
lobbying and Reagan seem to be the answers for most things involving businesses and corporations these days
The fact that data brokers are legal deserves a revolution to happen
The first time I heard a youtube sponser tell me "Take a photo of your documents and receipts and this service will clean up the photo and block off important information!" Blew my mind. Who in their right mind would willingly agree to send private info to a service to remove said private info off a photo for you to save??
Wait lol no way what sponsors is that
Used incogni, I live in the EU, GDPR applies to me, basically anyone I ask (no not banks, police and that stuff) is legally obligated to delete everything on me.
Basically 90% of the companies incogni emailed told me that they can't delete my stuff because I need to be the person contacting them, they legally can't do anything about a rando company emailing them (with details about my personally identifiable information so they can find my stuff wich is sketchy itself) to delete everything on me.
Data controllers are obligated to comply with requests by authorized representatives. But they may need to verify that the representative can act on your behalf, if doing so is suitable and proportionate. See e.g. EDPB (European Data Protection Board) guidelines 01/2022 section 3.4 ("requests made via third parties/proxies"). I would have expected a *data removal company* to have procedures in place to verify that they are authorized to request deletion on your behalf...
This is why I don't hesitate to call Incogni a scam. Idk about the others, but my experience with incogni came at the cost of exposing my data to more brokers than before I used their service! I bought Incogni through nordvpn when it first launched then got locked out of my account after the first month (Even though I still paid). They just said "we don't know whats happening, theres nothing we can do" for the next 2 months, then finally said "You will have to figure it out with nord".. I never got refunded by either company, never got the service other than the first month, and over a fking year later was getting emails from data brokers abroad saying that incogni was submitting opt-outs on my behalf.
@meikgeikinteresting, could i ask which service your employer offered to you?
They now have all the information that they can sell back.
Yes incogni does @meikgeik
Was waiting for this one.
First time I heard an ad for Incogni I had the same reaction Markiplier had to Honey.
I had same reaction for both for honey and incogni, and various other too good to be true companies cuz i work in tech
Yeah, I don’t really believe people are so eager to help us without some kind of benefit on their part…
The only people I’ve seen be that way is very religious people in certain faiths, and even then you have to look at their life and who they are before you can actually believe that they’re not just trying to benefit themselves …. There’s a very specific personality skill set. You’re looking for when somebody genuinely wants to just help you out because they’re good people….
I don’t think half of these companies making apps are those kind of people.
@Jaxmusicgal23 Well at least here it is clear they are getting paid by your money, so there's no obvious con they have to be pulling to be viable, unlike Honey that has to get a cut somewhere since the app is free.
@Jaxmusicgal23Incogni is a subscription service. Their selling point is "you're paying us to save yourselves the time of sending E-Mails to various companies"
@vaisakh_km
Various others?
Like what for example?
Or you're waiting for them to be exposed and you'll say you knew all along?
As someone who also does 3d work, the chromatic aberration from the projector in this is some beautiful attention to detail.
your hair catching the projection is such a nuts detail to include. you're incredible at what you do
Came here to say this, like actually paused the video to come praise this
right? the production quality of this is *insane*
Its a pretty easy effect to do but its really cool
@setlerking people be assuming everything is hand drawn/animated and forget about the existence of physics simulators
im pretty sure he renders this in a 3D space.
I've always been somewhat interested in these services but I'm always just a bit suspicious of anything that get advertised a little _too_ much. I'm glad you've made a video on these services.
Same. I was think about oura 💀
My first reaction when the ad blitz a couple of years ago for Wish.
Well *everything* is sus. Opera, Politicans, Tencent, everything that offers free services (that is why I use brave and activated their ads [they are annoying but at least it makes it more unlikely that they sell my data])
Never trust anyone with your data, who doesn't want money, unless it is Signal. Cough Whatsapp cough.
@biosarvat9475as a person that used to be a sweaty child in Indonesia i agree
Three words. Raid shadow legends
A golden rule is if an advertiser has enough money to spam RUclipsrs with sponsors but not enough to plaster billboards everywhere, it's probably a scam.
And those that do both are successful scams.
Well, to be fair, using billboards to advertise products and services that one uses on their computer seems less logical than using the very services that relate to the product being advertised.
I get what you mean, but I also see why it makes more sense to advertise online services... Online.
@CaidicusProductions You're missing my point.
They're willing to dump millions on youtuber ad reads but aren't willing to advertise in more public spaces with bigger viewership because they want to keep under the radar. The billboard was an example of a large public advertisement. It could have been a magazine ad or a radio/TV commercial or an advertising screen in Times Square.
But they don't use that kind of advertising, which is odd because that's what most advertisers with their level of money would do.
Exactly. Billboard are great but i guess They want to target specific people @PlebNC
Incogni is owned by NordVPN which is a large company. They understand their demographic is online and the best way to get their product out is to give sponsors. It's really not that hard to understand
@Meci-sk7iq Yeah, the gullible.
6:28 or the scarier notion; Data leak contains the information of when you're asleep leaving you most vulnerable to break ins, theft, identity fraud or other crimes.
All this spying shit and I still get ads for things i’ve never once asked for.
Adding cause i remember: As a gay man, i managed to influence my sisters ads to start showing her (a straight women) gay male dating ads.
Dont share devices but they do be spying, just... really, really badly.
Lmao i know right! It's like they're not even trying
i regularly get ads in spanish despite not speaking it. and like, i’m delighted that these advertisers are recognizing and embracing that english isn’t the only language spoken in the US, but…how do you have so much data on me and still not know i don’t speak spanish??? 😭
I’m a gay man and I get ads for women’s clothes. I’m not going to wear them and I’m not going to be buying them for my partner.
Hitting the nail. If at least they wouldn't just push botfarm AI mobile game ads every single fucking time, I don't care if I get served ads that don't interest me, but at least let them be somewhat human world related ads and not this fake dead internet style slop.
I routinely get ads in Spanish. I don’t speak or understand Spanish. Avoiding paying for ads to someone who can’t understand them should be the number one priority of these companies, yet I still get ads in Spanish. It makes me think they clearly aren’t as smart as they think they are…
I'll never understand why we can't OWN our own data. That way, if these companies are gonna profit off it, I can at least get a cut!
Because everything, everything always comes down to money being more important than people
That's quite simply because nobody in any court or political arena has ever filed a motion to declare, or raised the question of whether your personal information is your personal property and your personal copyright & personal trademark. And nobody has done it because there's a lot of money in not asking the question, and a lot of money in getting rid of the politician who files the motion.
Data can be collected from anything or anywhere, depending on what you're looking for. E.g. the device you wrote your comment from (PC, laptop, phone, smart fridge, etc) is a data point. How can you own that? If I go into a store and the salesperson notices the brand of watch I have, he has data that could possibly be useful to him. You can't quantify a dollar amount or determine if he's allowed to do that.
It's because people freely leak or even give out this data routinely, all the time. They _don't care_ to keep the data to themselves, or otherwise they would. It's not that these companies are stealing the data, they're simply vacuuming up the massive pile of breadcrumbs that people are leaving all over the place.
@hamzajafri4551 "How can you own that?"
By informing yourself, learning how the device works, learning how to use it properly, and being selective with what you reveal to the world about yourself. If you don't want that guy to see what kind of watch you're wearing, then you cover it up, or take it off before you go into the store.
I live in the EU and i was curious what these databrokers collect and checked on a few free services. The US is really creepy.
Edit: due to YT censorship my reply has been deleted. EU countries have surveillance too. But for companies does not allow to collect and sell data how US companies do, without the consent of users and often with malicious intent.
Nah US is pretty good place. 99% of the "services" collecting data are not worth using. Google is collecting your data right now, yet you still use it, no government regulation can protect you from your own actions.
Only difference is your government doing it "for your safety", in US its disguised as public.. All big brothers plan chugging along 😞
The US is a dystopia
GDPR is a lie. It only gives you the right to sue. Not any actually rights. Good luck suing because someone knows a data point about you.
Plus, most things can be exempted. Plus the time taken to read all policies and updates is to large to be doable
They will only act if its an entire class of people. Like black people or something.
@benayers8622 well every country has their surveillance programs. The major difference is that big corpos in the US is selling your data against your will and against your benefit.
I love the fact that I finally see a bigger channel with clippy as profile picture. Kudos to you sir.
Clippys unite!
I exist too😒
Sorry I'm late. The traffic was terrible.
Never ever trust RUclips sponsorships. It's just a safe way to go.
Sponsorblock extension
@Nostalgia_48 sometimes I see comments of people complaining about the ad read, and I'm like "...what ad read?". Man I love this extension
@Nostalgia_48Sponsor block + ad block are an essential tools in the modern internet.
@_KnuXles I've never used an extension, I just manually skip all sponsors automatically. They're usually 60 or 120 seconds, I've got the keypresses down. I'm baffled whenever people talk about sponsor segments as if they actually watch them all the way through.
@incognitoburrito6020 I also cringe when I see people saying "This is the only channel I watch the adverts for!" like it means anything. Idc if they made the ad read in to a song; I'm skipping it
Blocking ads should be a human right
Ads, like so many other things in this world, should be more local again
Black Mirror
episode "15 million merits"
Use the Brave browser. Blocking ads and trackers is built into it. It's built on the same platform as chrome.
I've not seen an ad on youtube in like 7 years. I'm serious.
aside from "great" ios where doing this is a pain in the ass, installing an adblocker for your browser will take 1 minute. I don't remember when it was the last time I saw an ad on a site.
I feel bad for the masses who lack the ad blockers that work.
Why haven't you heard of them? So RUclips doesn't patch it.
20:01 That is a very poor shredder. For any sort of privacy you need a crosscut shredder. It doesn't just turn the paper into ribbons, but also cuts the ribbons so it's more liek confetti
AI makes even cross cut shredders useless. There are entire algorithms to piece it all back together.
it's a 3d model?
@TheJttv was it sorting through one papers bits or multiple papers? Also how did the information from eqch bit get into the AI software, like a picture or a 3d scan?
@TheJttv Most people who'd dig thru your mail wouldn't have the resources or want to put in the effort. Why do that when there are easier suckers to catch?
@amosmoses5630 i know they can do atleast a bag. And they need to be laid out in a picture or scanner.
None of this is new. Tech has existed for a a while
17:56 not to mention. If your applying for a lot of jobs. You get texts from random numbers all the time. So it's even harder to tell if it's legit or not
GREAT point!
Applying to jobs is a privacy nightmare. You can be the most careful person in the world, no social media, no online purchases, no smart devices, but if you need a job you need to give a laundry list of incredibly specific personal data to sometimes hundreds of companies that have no legal obligation to you because you're just an applicant, not an employee.
@zedkid Well, even your actual employer is prone to failing to respect their legal obligations to you.
I haven't used the Internet without an ad-blocker in well over 15 years. Targeted ads must be crazy for people just using the internet raw
Try to search your local representative information online, find all of his informations, his family included, tell him that you found it online and it was all collected without his consent, I think it should be pretty clear.
Why don't we en-masse do this. Suddenly it will become illegal to amass data on... well, at least the "important people"
I wonder if they will stoop so low as to help us poor folks
Why don't we en-masse do this. Suddenly it will become illegal to amass data on... well, at least the "important people"
I wonder if they will stoop so low as to help us poor folks
It's crazy how much stuff you can gather about someone with some specific google searches. A good rule to follow, is that if you don't want information to be used against you, don't share it online, anywhere really. Like people are surprised when they get unwanted visitors or phone calls, yet they blatantly post all that information on their social media pages xd
Good idea. I need to send my local representatives some strap-on spines, anyway. They seem to have lost their original spines.
@proximityclockworkx1572 My problem is getting calls when I DIDN'T post my phone number on any sites. Only used it as two factor authentication.
My rule of thumb is just to not trust any youtube sponsorship
Give your kid a super common, anonymous name. I have three first names. When I run a paid background report on me, it says I've been a professor, a trucker, a felon, a boat captain, a waiter, had 5 wives, and 6 kids etc etc. None of those are true, they just mix up the common name.
Ok so make sure the kid has a common last name also
Hello, John Smith Allen. Good to see you.
John James Smith actually. I've always wanted to dox myself in the comments of a pro-privacy video, ty.
My partner has a very common first name and a last name that I'd never heard of before I'd met him. However, he has been in a waiting room where they called his first name and 5 ppl stood up. They added the last initial and 3 stayed standing. They added the full last name and 3 remained standing. It was only after they listed the full birthdate that they clarified who they were calling back. He wasn't related to any of the other ppl with the same name as him.
They didn't check middle names cuz that clinic didn't have that on their records.
And I honestly thought I had a fairly unique last name most of my life until I learned that it's actually a pretty common German last name - even in the US. My first name was unique for the first half of my life, but around the time I was in high school, it became popular, so now there's a ton of ppl about 15-20 years younger than me with the same first name. It's kinda disorienting to hear your name in public when you grew up with the expectation that ppl would just assume your name was... a similar but very different first name. I still bear a grudge against the letter "d." Yes, I know it's irrational, but there is no "d" in my name - first, middle, or last!
I don’t know if giving your children boring names is a concession people should be making bc of dystopian data brokers
I used to be my job to anonymize data when requested, if you don’t live in the EU or California these companies don’t have to legally delete any of your data. Currently the only laws I am aware of that require deletion are GDPR in the EU and the CCPA in California. Seeing ads like that annoyed me so much bc I know how impossible it is for the majority of people to actually get their data deleted. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. That’s really all you can do. I’ve been saying this for years!!! Thank you for this video.
Also uk gdpr / data protection act fyi
the enforcement of those laws is dubious at best. Remember all your data doesn't just live in the EU, even if you do. It's harvested and sent to massive data centers in places like China where they don't care about laws of western nations, we're the enemy.
I thought there were data protection laws in Canada as well?
#1 rule to remember: copying stolen data is FREE. That's how they got it in the first place.
#2: this won't negate any times they already sold your data even if they actually delete it, which I don't believe they will.
@marhawkman303 In most cases these companies didn't steal the data. The problem is that we are all agreeing to the fine print terms and conditions which allows all the service providers to share this data with partners for profit. "Partners" = data brokers. We allow it, without realizing it.
7:39 severence again
Lol I thought the same thing, he even used the table from the first episode.
@jamesginger7504yep lol
Yep, perfect for it.
Had to rewind the video to check if my brain was playing tricks on me, since I immediately clocked those few notes but the rest of the music doesn't match. Amazing how just five notes can have that power even out of context.
I'm so relieved that my paranoid hunch about these sponsors was justified lol
as someone who shops at target and lives in atlanta georgia and drinks coffee and listens to punk rock music and have a 5-10 mile commute and owns a playstation and loves dogs and is currently watching an educational video about privacy on youtube, i am very concerned
😂
The chosen one
Got you 🫵
Bro just doxxed himself and attached his pfp
@gusslx come hmu ill be at the earl tomorrow and eyedrum on saturday
In Europe, under the GDPR, individuals have the right not only to request the restriction of processing (Article 18) but also to request the complete erasure of their personal data (Article 17) - the so-called “right to be forgotten” - meaning organizations may be obliged to cease processing entirely, unless there are overriding legal grounds to retain the data.
Yes, Europe has very serious privacy laws which are different than the USA. Maybe because in living memory they saw governments hunt down and murder millions of people because of demographic data (e.g. ethnicity or political views). But, the flip side is that also makes it much easier for predators and criminals to remain undetected in their society (can't be outed). It also creates huge burdens on companies which impacts jobs. I've worked with Europeans across 5+ countries for 20 years now. They don't actually delete the data under GDPR in many cases (e.g. on all the backup tapes from previous years? come on) they just flag it for "don't report". Which is what these data brokers are doing.
There are no perfect solutions, there are only tradeoffs.
No, these regulations don't exists because there was nazism so we don't want personal data collected. These regulations doesn't apply to governments by the way. If I ask the government to erase my data because of the GDPR they laugh at me.
These regulations are created to use them as a trade weapon against U.S. because im EU we haven't a single worthy big tech company that could potentially be fined by hundreds of millions of dollars for infringing those regulation.
@JkGreyWolf-21 ANd how many pedos are there? You want to trade a few of them for the security of millions. And I work for a company that is not even in the EU(difference between Europe and EU) and when we get a request for deleting information then that information gets scrubbed. Im not sure what kind of backwater companies you have worked with but if you dont comply with GDPR it can mean a fine that is equal to 10% of yearly revenue.
Good on paper, impossible in practice.
So maaaaany places and shell companies where that data can be found. There will always be copies on your data, which will simply be reshared/resold. On top of that, not every country recognises or applies these rules/laws.
They know your desires, needs, psych profile, sexuality and what kind of stuff you ever watch(ed). Up untill now this information is only being used to deeply manipulate you and society, but the scarier thing is, that when the country you live in, will fall to fascism. Suddenly any arbitrary trait might make you "the outsider" or enemy. Whether its your stance on abortion, schooling, sexuality or whatever. People have been prosecuted for the stupidest of things before. It's just that when some trait becomes societies new enemy to prosecute, they will immediately be able to find the people with that certain trait or thoughts.
@JkGreyWolf-21 GDPR isnt perfect but its the best solution we have at the moment, gun laws in usa may prevent serious crimes but it will also increase the number of murders every year.. Same logic, the gun laws is the best solution in usa to solve a issue but its also a factor that make the issue worse..
Something that I’ve always noticed is that is true for any company or product: if their product wasn’t shady, then they wouldn’t be advertising themselves through youtube sponsorships. If they have to resort to leveraging parasocial relationships to get consumers invested in their product, then they’re compensating for something.
Also, if their product is free but they still have the funds to purchase these sponsorships, then they’re still making money off of the consumers using their product. Most likely, that’ll be in a way that the consumers can’t control and wouldn’t approve of
I disagree, it's not that they are sponsoring through RUclips that's the problem. It's the fact that it's non-targeted ads. Having a security broker or VPN sponsor someone like TekIt who deals with scammers, or VPNs sponsoring language channels so that you can access other country's media. That's targeted. It makes sense. But having a VPN ad in the middle of a video about why whales might be going extinct, or a playthrough of a 30 year old game makes no sense.
RUclips sponsorships aren't bad, it's the ones that sponsor everyone and everywhere and clearly throw millions away paying for those sponsors that reveal something shady is going on behind the lines
@RoderickVI You're right, my bad. I was specifically thinking of the more notorious brands that I associate with youtuber sponsorship reads, the ones that have real use to a targeted audience are generally fine
Seatgeek has saved me a bunch of money for concert tix 🤔 but thats about it
@RoderickVI Even then, can you think of a _good brand_ that also advertises on RUclips? I can't think of a single one. (and especially in the category of e.g. VPNs, none of the (two) good ones advertise).
@mibdev There are some new games that use Content Creators that play these types of games that sponsor them to show off theirs.
These I would consider good, since they both make their advertisements content for the audience, as well as show it to people who are interested in that stuff anyways
If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing.
This video is INCREDIBLY well made. As a cybersecurity student, thank you for getting this information out there for the general public and those getting started in cybersecurity careers! I learned a lot from this.
yo great profile picture
@astronautwashere
thanks! I thought I might have overdone it with the rainbow background making MLG clippy hard to see, but I guess being overwhelming is the point of the aesthetic 😂
Indeed we need to broadcast education as far and wide we can. The sooner we stand together and say no the sooner this all ends..
For real. I make videos for movie studios and I was blown away by that intro.
Privacy as a subscription.
They really will commercialize everything.
"Privacy"
Thanks for acknowledging how long it takes to move away from Gmail. I am six months into my transition away and it feels like I have such a long way to go still.
Boy I sure am happy I was too lazy to even click on the link.
Hey, data privacy professional here. Great video overall, but I wanted to flag a few inaccuracies toward the end. You mentioned that the core issue is the collection of data itself, rather than the ability to delete it. That idea is actually known as “Data Minimization.” Maryland recently became the first state to pass a law that enshrines this principle. EPIC and Consumer Reports have also proposed model legislation that centers data minimization. As for GDPR, it does include a very minor data minimization requirement in Article 5(1)(c), but the regulation also allows data processing under a “legitimate interest” basis-which is a broad loophole. Economic benefit, for example, can qualify as a legitimate interest, which means companies can still process your data despite the minimization standard.
GDPR is great but definitely has some flaws, the fact that checking what data is being held requires a 'Subject Access Request' but that involves handing over more data than they have on record in the first place, seems paradoxical.
Also the only time i've made a deletion request under GDPR (TV Licencing) it was declined on the grounds of the information being required, i could likely refer the case to the ICO but feels like a waste of time when the only data they have is available from the land registry anyway
That said though, i would still take a flawed GDPR over what the rest of the world has to deal with
@sg9222 poopy poopy butthole
I would instead prefer legislation to make it illegal to sell, share or distribute data which might involve, even only inferentially, personal data.
Collection of data isn't the real problem. They only ask for more data than they reasonably should have because they plan to sell it to data brokers. If it cannot be distributed, free or otherwise, outside of the individual company, they wouldn't need to collect it at all. Just remove loopholes by making parent companies out of scope for use, and all data involving personal data (even inferentially) to be deleted in case of a merger or acquisition.
@kelly4187 Definitely to sell, but if you make it illegal to share data, then companies that need to share data to operate (which is most of them) will not be able to operate. For instance a car dealership needs to share data with financing companies to get you a loan. The main problem is sharing information that isn't necessary in the essential functions of the services they provide. Also, one thing people have to brace for is that if it is illegal to sell data then many services and products, including most electronics, will skyrocket in price because companies will no longer be making an income from them beyond selling the actual service.
The fact you can profess to hold such a clearly BS title as "privacy professional" and it even come off as partially serious means there is no hope. The only privacy professional is the hermit who moved to a peak in the Himalayas to live in solitude in 1971. Get out of here with your snake oil, salesman.
I LOVE how the projector catches the corner of the desk in this animation: that’s such an amazing, subtle, good touch
Now if only he could've resisted adding the sun glare and blurring that comes with overheads (though not _this_ bad. Seriously, dude, focus your "lens.")
@NoirRavenThe correct response is to shout "Focus!!" in the comments with the timestamp. 😅
30:21 "I've heard other creators compare [blocking ads] to piracy..."
Oh hey LinusTechTips, why are you looking at me all grumpy?
Brotato even animated captions and scared me for a second 😭
I like how in the background window at the start it was night, and slowly turned into morning by the end of the video.
as a general rule, assume all major youtube sponsors to be sketchy
24:46 I live in China. VPN is my life.
"most" people
what vpn do you use?
Well china does have over a billon poeple😂@ChintanCG
@ChintanCG people that live in China, India, Indonesia, the middle East, Russia etc are most people
@lennyjazzythis is a reminder that you're watching an american video. Many of the topics that are talked about don't even apply to most western counties like those in the EU. Russia, china and india are not even considered part of the target audience.
this is the digital age of protection money that gangsters would charge physical shops.
I have always acted on the principle "don't put anything in an email or sms that you wouldn't put on a postcard". As for data, it's now impossible not to have your information sold, especially since many governments are no longer using safe, onshore storage for stuff. The response is to not respond to ads. Just because you see an ad, doesn't mean you need to buy the thing being advertised.
That should have been the FIRST response to adverts.
22:15 If that was my output(deleted 0.87% data points in 6 Months) in my daily work, I would be fired and probably have to pay damages in court
Me, drinking coffee, while playing PlayStation, and watching an educational video on RUclips about privacy 😲
I was wondering why this had less than 1M views but then I heard you say to block ads, now I'm surprised I saw it at all
Does have a million now!
24:20 This is where you'd normally put in an ad for a VPN, but instead these guys ROAST it...
Actually, the scorpion promised me that he won't sting me if I carried him across the stream, I think i should trust him
RULES OF NATURE!
The fact that the adverts on this video were Apple Watch advertising early heart disease identification and electric toothbrushes was the cherry on the irony cake
Who in their right mind would connect a mattress to the internet. I don't want facebook to know when my mattress is being used and in what ... ways ...
jumping on my bed while looking up random stuff to thow off the algorhithm's knowledge on what i get off to.
"This guy loves CBAT"
Commenting before watching: I always distrust any company whose outputs can't be verified. If a company sells me a computer I can do stuff on the computer to make sure it works, but if they sell me data removal there's no way to me to check if the data was actually removed from the internet, or if the data even existed in the first place and they aren't just making up fake data to delete.
Those were my thoughts too. Macafee used to pop up windows saying "371947 bugs found on your computer!!" And yet, I was still using it perfectly fine.....that's a loooooot of bugs for me not having any problems....🤔
@andrearupe8094 McAfee is the 300,000 bugs.
@andrearupe8094 ...Bugs wouldn't cause issues for you _using_ the computer unless an absurd abount of them were active simultaneously.
I mean, there _are_ ways for you to check...? A decent number of data brokers have some degree of public-facing interface that lets you get small amounts of info about a person from their databases.
Perhaps you should check before writing then.
1) if they offer a service and don't even try to do it half decently, they are liable of scamming and can be sued
2) You can discover if they removed the data by submitting a request of your own to the data brokers that data removal systems claim they have submitted the request on your behalf. In the EU and UK they must comply and tell you if they have your data.
3) you cannot easily remove your data from the internet. To do that you should have always lived completely off grid and probably not even that. These services only remove data from known data broker services or companies that are not public-facing and that are sometimes used by scammers
Every time I see some company start sponsoring all the RUclipsrs I watch, I can't help but assume there's something wrong with it.
People pay for overpriced mattress that sells their data and then pay companies to delete that data 😂😂😂
" ai was not using the making of this video" we really at this point,huh
Yeaaaa
I subscribed, also someone brought up that if they become large enough they’ll probably lobby against data protection
I hadn't even thought about them pulling a turbotax but holy fk they could
They probably already have. " I don't believe anything the government tells me." -George Carlin
for the example at 21:33, doesn't this deletion of incorrect/outdated information make the remaining information more valuable? Less valuable to the customer, and refines the remaining data set for the broker
I am adding that mattress to my dystopian novel. Thanks
I felt something off with those services, so I never decided to get it. Now, this explains it.
Looks like the algorithm has decided to bless this video, as it popped outta nowhere in my feed but I was immediately hooked by the high production value. And the amount of views compared to the previous videos shows that too.
Yes, was random for me too, as per usual, I just scrolled on by... but the Channel named caught my eye at the last second so I gave it a go, found good stuff 👍
It caught my eye because I watched a criticism of Honey, and then a channel I watch used Incogni as a sponsor. I didn't know you paid for Incogni's services at first, so I questioned where the capitalist motive was and wondered if they were a scammer like Honey. I hoped to find out the truth from this random video. Finding out Incogni is a paid for service--but a useless one--is both reassuring and disheartening. 🙃
they “deleted” your data from data brokers, but now your data is in their hands.
That's what I thought
Bet me that they are or will be owned by experian etc.
Better. You paid these people and gave them your data so it could be "deleted."
This only proves the data is correct and attached to a paying -sucker- customer.
@JBrown-fs5jd if that’s were your data went, wouldn’t be nearly as bad.
Nope. Your data went to Cambridge Analytica.
omor speaking facts
Using phones, internet, and social apps, and then paying for privacy is like paying a guy to protect your fishing equipment while you use a giant colander as a boat.
RUclips recommended me this video, and I find it very well made. It's a good insight on how the advertising industry works.
Ok, wonderful video, but can we talk about how his hair gets in the way of the text because it's blocking the projector? That is some absolutely gnarly detail and I love every second of it.
I find it ironic that as privacy slowly deteriorates in the general public, being privacy aware becomes more of an identifier
I now don’t trust anything that appears as a RUclips sponsorship…
All these parents giving small children ipads and smartphones expecting them to come out "themselves" but with all their information, browsing habits and eye what they watch and play being sold to others that same day... you wouldnt trust your child with a stranger, yet for some reason parents trust their kids with millions of strangers on their smartphones and computers.