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by hbrav 502 days ago
So if I understand this correctly, this company gets certain information about 911 calls, and then sells it to third parties?

I wonder how much information they get, because this could get a lot darker. Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers. (A domestic violence victim might well want a divorce lawyer, but unsolicited material showing up in their mailbox may put them at risk by enraging their already-violent spouse.)
2 comments
RajT88 502 days ago
I had something like this once.

I was in a car crash on a Sat. night and flew to Boston for work the next day. I got weird calls from out of state the following days telling me I had to call the impound lot who had my crashed car and fax a release form.

Wondering why I had to do this, I called the impound lot who explained that there was a shady company that would make off with your crashed car if they could talk you into releasing it, which then they could strongarm you into repairs with them or they would get the totaled vehicle if insurance went that way. That has got to be illegal, so I contacted the local PD and they simply did not care.

Shady people get rich in businesses where the police do not care. Anything car related seems to be filled with bad behavior.

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lemonberry 502 days ago
"Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers."

While not nearly as cryptic, Target had to adjust their advertising a few years ago because they were accurately predicting women's pregnancies through their analytics. Women received targeted mailings. In many cases probably not problematic, but there's potential for that data to be horribly misused.

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digitalPhonix 494 days ago
There is a lot of doubt as to weather that story is real. The story supposedly happened in 2009 when the online Target store was hosted and run by Amazon. Even now Amazon's (or anyone else's) recommendations are not anywhere close to that despite having a decade more experience building recommendations systems. (Yes, Amazon, I want to buy another TV after ordering one yesterday)

http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/target-predict-teen-pregnan...

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asalahli 502 days ago
IIRC one of these women was a teenager who hadn't told her parents about her pregnancy
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