Kiddie Monitoring Software Spying On IM Chats, Selling Info To Marketers
from the yeah,-that'll-go-over-well dept
There are a bunch of different "child filtering/monitoring" software on the market these days, and many parents use it to help them keep track of what their kids do online. I have no problem with this -- so long as such filters aren't mandated by the government. But it appears that just selling the tools isn't enough for some companies. JJ sends in the news that one of the top providers in the space doesn't just monitor what kids do for parents, but collects all the data -- including the text of chat room discussions -- and resells it to marketers. You have to imagine that this isn't exactly what the FTC (or parents) expects of such tools.The company defends the practice, claiming that the data is anonymized and no identifiable data is included -- but we've heard that before. Every single time someone insists their data is anonymized, news breaks showing that it is not. I don't think there's anything wrong, necessarily, with doing targeted marketing programs, but using unsuspecting parents and getting them to install filters and monitoring software, without realizing the data will be handed over to marketing firms, seems pretty sleazy.
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Filed Under: kids, marketing, monitoring, privacy
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Opt-Out?
Sleazy practice indeed but damn, people need to learn to read the agreements when they install software.
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Re: Opt-Out?
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Either that or let them go wild. b00bs will not turn your son into the devil, and if you treat your children with respect and treat them like you actually care and talk to them they won't go meet some 47 yr old pedophile at McDonalds
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How can they gaurentee anonymity?
Not to mention, IM and Chatrooms used to be all about the txt, but now its just as much about video's and pictures. While one may say its up to you not to put such information on the web, the very audience that the software is targeting (young kids/their parents) indicates users who do not yet know any better.
Finally - Why do companies WANT this information about young kids to target advertisements towards them!?
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Useless stuff anyway
I always just setup the computers so anyone walking past could see what was on the screen, and made it very clear that the instant anyone started minimising or closing windows when I walked past, they were off it for a week. My habit of sneaking up behind people to scare them, after watching their screen for a bit, probably explains why I only had one of them kicked off once. :P (turns out when I checked the screencap app I had running that she was just playing with photoshop to make silly photos of her mother and I)
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Lock them up and throw away the key
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Parental permission without parental agreement?
How can they claim they have the parents permission to collect data if the parents haven't agreed to it?
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"anonymous" targeted marketing
Anyway, the issue here is trust, they already lost that trust when they neglected to inform the users of their actions.
That being said, taking the word of some "spokesman" who says, Trust Us, There Is Nothing to Fear Here is foolish. Especially when said "spokesman" probably has nothing to do with the collection, distribution, and "cleansing" of the data. So in essence he's just repeating what he's been told.
No Sir, Dont like it.
Loh
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Ha!
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Evil is as evil does
Of course, this is slightly the parents fault. Teaching your children and being a part of their lives (to echo Chronno from above) is worth a lot more than the "protection" these "services" provide.
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Whiteshoes: Start your wordprocessors
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"Unsuspecting"?
Parents used to raise their children so they could live in the world... and survive. This involved teaching them about the world, not trying to hide everything that's "suspect" from them. Why do you think every generation gets more screwed up than the one before it? (Parents doing a lousy job of parenting... but a really good job of avoiding real parenting.)
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hey
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