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Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You

Everything We Know About What Data Brokers Know About You
June 13, 2014: This story has been updated. It was originally published on March 7, 2013. We've spent a lot of time this past year trying to understand how the National Security Agency gathers and stores information about ordinary people. But there's also a thriving public marketfor data on individual Americans—especially data about the things we buy and might want to buy. Consumer data companies are scooping up huge amounts of consumer information about people around the world and selling it, providing marketers details about whether you're pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you drive. The Federal Trade Commission is pushing the companies to give consumers more information and control over what happens to their data. It's very hard to tell who is collecting or sharing your data—or what kinds of information companies are collecting. Here's a look at what we know—and what we don't—about the consumer data industry. Actually, they do.

SoundCloud Earnings: Burning Cash While Building For Future SoundCloud's latest earnings report shows a familiar pattern in music streaming -- the company's expenses and losses far outpaced its revenue growth in 2014. Revenue grew 53.9 percent to €17.4 million (US $19.7 million) but its loss before income taxes, depreciation and amortization nearly doubled to €36.9 million (US $41.8 million). The deficit came from a large increase in administrative expenses -- the staff to develop and market the service -- up 67.8 percent to €47.8 million (US $54.1 million). In all, including cost of sales, SoundCloud spent €56.4 million (US $63.8 million) to generate €17.4 million. Fast growth meant SoundCloud was burning cash in 2014. Its operating activities -- the normal course of business -- had a net outflow of €32.3 million. In order to keep its growth engine fueled, SoundCloud raised $77 million in funding last year, and it may need even more. Two benchmarks indicate a range of revenue that could be expected from SoundCloud.

Google privacy policy changes: How to keep your web history private - simple 3-step solution By Julian Gavaghan Updated: 13:33 GMT, 29 December 2012 Even though Google's controversial new privacy policy is now 'live', you can still defend yourself against the search giant's prying eyes. Google will now use your web browsing history as part of a 'profile' it builds on all signed-in Google users - and removing this information will limit the extent to which Google records your every move - including your embarrassing secrets. Here's how: 1. 2. 3. Although disabling web history will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes, it does mean the Web giant will anonymise the data in 18 months. It will also prevent it from certain kinds of uses, including sending you customised search results. If you don't sign in, Google will track your searches via the computer's IP address. While it is not known exactly how Google would use your combined information, the policy has been widely criticised.

‘Music is a difficult beast’ admits Heineken as it launches global music-focused campaign The new global strategy #LiveYourMusic, which was created in partnership with Publicis Worldwide, will be supported with a TV campaign, special bottle designs, new packaging, local digital activation and experiential activity. It will be rolled out across all its markets from summer onwards. The TV ad sees numerous people loudly sing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, before reaching a climax when all the singers come together in a Heineken sponsored music stadium. The new bottle designs and packaging are expected to fit in with the musical direction the brand is taking. Anuraag Trikha, Heineken’s global brand communication director, told Marketing Week that it sponsors more than 1,000 music events globally as music remains an important gateway to reach millennials. “Music has almost become the beat of how Heineken communicates and touches people around the world. “Music is a very difficult beast for brands and it’s challenging for brands to create salience.

Protéger sa vie privée dans Internet et les réseaux sociaux Photo: iStock Seulement Facebook ? On ne peut plus parler de vie privée dans Internet sans évoquer constamment Facebook. 1- Il n’y a pas de renseignements banals Le nom de votre mère, votre date d’anniversaire, votre lieu de naissance… Ces renseignements que vous publiez ou que vous ajoutez à votre profil d’utilisateur semblent bien innocentes, mais en les croisant, on peut faire beaucoup. Pour vous permettre de récupérer un mot de passe perdu, par exemple, plusieurs sites utilisent une question personnelle comme « Quel est le nom de votre mère ? 2- Ne vous surestimez pas. Lors d’une étude conduite par Caroline Vallet, tous les jeunes de moins de 18 ans interrogés ont affirmé qu’ils trouvaient les paramètres de confidentialité de Facebook faciles à utiliser. « Savent-ils vraiment si bien les utiliser, ou sont-ils plutôt inconscients ? Après tout, ces réglages changent souvent et sont parfois difficiles à trouver et à déchiffrer. 3- Les amis de vos amis sont-ils vraiment vos amis ?

Interstellar (2014) Marc Anthony Takes On Jay-Z's Roc Nation With New Media Company Marc Anthony – actor, singer, producer extraordinaire – is looking to be the Jay-Z of Latino Roc Nation in 2016. Similarly to HOV, Anthony aims to empower Latino musicians and athletes alike with Magnus Media, a new entertainment branding, marketing, and social media company. “This [company] was born out of frustration,” Anthony told Billboard. Anthony launched a sports division last November after already having signed big music names like Gente de Zona, Chino & Nacho, and Alejandro Sanz. “Baseball, like music, is an ingrained cultural passion for many Latinos throughout the world,” he explained, “And there’s no shortage of amazing stars of Hispanic origin. We’re with you all the way Marc.

Paul Ford: What is Code? | Bloomberg A computer is a clock with benefits. They all work the same, doing second-grade math, one step at a time: Tick, take a number and put it in box one. Tick, take another number, put it in box two. Tick, operate (an operation might be addition or subtraction) on those two numbers and put the resulting number in box one. Tick, check if the result is zero, and if it is, go to some other box and follow a new set of instructions. You, using a pen and paper, can do anything a computer can; you just can’t do those things billions of times per second. Apple has always made computers; Microsoft used to make only software (and occasional accessory hardware, such as mice and keyboards), but now it’s in the hardware business, with Xbox game consoles, Surface tablets, and Lumia phones. So many things are computers, or will be. When you “batch” process a thousand images in Photoshop or sum numbers in Excel, you’re programming, at least a little. 2.1 How Do You Type an “A”? It’s simple now, right?

The Daily Swarm This is about as indie as it gets, right? Billboard.biz: For nearly 50 years, Time Inc. Ten of the 17 selected artists will participate in the Vegas festival: Delta Spirit, Elan Atias & White Elephant, J. Blank Space: What Kind of Genius Is Max Martin? Among the stranger aspects of recent pop music history is how so many of the biggest hits of the past twenty years—by the Backstreet Boys, ’NSync, and Britney Spears to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and the Weeknd—have been co-written by a forty-four-year-old Swede. His real name is Karl Martin Sandberg, but you would know him as Max Martin, if you know of him at all, which, if he can help it, you won’t. He is music’s magic melody man, the master hooksmith responsible for twenty-one No. 1 Billboard hits—five fewer than John Lennon, and eleven behind Paul McCartney, on the all-time list. But, while Lennon and McCartney are universally acknowledged as geniuses, few outside the music business have heard of Max Martin. Presumably this is because Martin writes all of his songs for other people to sing. The fame that Lennon and McCartney achieved by performing their work will never be his, which no doubt is fine with Martin. Sandberg was born in Stenhamra, a suburb of Stockholm, in 1971.

Mark Cuban Is Voting For "The Devil He Knows" Hillary, Warns Trump Presidency Will Crash Stocks In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shared some of his thoughts on what a potential Donald Trump presidency would do to the stock market, as well as who he would vote for if he had to choose today. Cuban opens up the conversation by discussing his main issue with Trump, which is that he hasn't taken the time to understand issues in any depth, and that he is unpredictable in what he's going to say from one topic to another, which will ultimately not play well for the market. "Let's take a step back first of all. Where Donald has come from, to today, you would think that he would be more knowledgeable on the issues, that we would look at what he's had to say, and say you know what, he's really picked up some in depth knowledge, he's nuanced on different topics whether it's immigration, whether it's the job plan, whether it's the economy, but that just hasn't happened, and to me that's a problem." "Probably not as smart as he thinks he is.

Pitingo obligado a suspender su concierto en Nueva York La oficina de management de Pitingo, 33spot, ha comunicado en la tarde de este miércoles 7 de marzo que por causas ajenas a su voluntad se han visto obligados a cancelar el concierto de Pitingo previsto para el viernes 9 de marzo en el Manhattan Center de Nueva York. Según informa 33spot, “Por causas que aún desconocemos, el Gobierno de Estados Unidos ha retenido el pasaporte del cantante y hasta el momento no hemos recibido el imprescindible visado de trabajo para poder acceder al país. Por esta razón, tanto Pitingo como sus músicos, no podrán viajar, como estaba previsto, mañana a Nueva York.” El comunicado de 33spot continúa explicando que “queremos expresar nuestro malestar principalmente por los inconvenientes causados al público que había adquirido ya las entradas para el concierto, a todos los colaboradores y entidades que han participado en la organización y promoción del evento y, por supuesto, por la parte que nos afecta como promotores y artista.

Interview: EMI opens Robbie Williams' catalogue to developers - midemblog Powered by The Echo Nest, OpenEMI is an open-API platform that makes artists’ content – music, photos, videos and more – available to developers of apps, websites and other services. The addition of the biggest-selling solo artist in the UK to the platform’s offering, announced here in Cannes, means the potential reach of the type of apps — like those being made at midem hack day right now — is now enormous. midemblog spoke to EMI’s Neil Tineberg about the deal: [youtube]ViXFdG7uCsc[/youtube] He then explained how the major works with developers in a revenue-share arrangement; and shared some examples of OpenEMI applications in the pipeline, including a rather impressive Blue Note app containing the legendary imprint’s entire repertoire. [youtube]f7xipE-BlOg[/youtube] The OpenEMI site The Echo Nest

Why Beats 1 Could Be a Visionary Media Move Trent Reznor is known for many things: frontman of Nine Inch Nails, an act that still fills stadiums; a masterful producer; outspoken commentator on the internet and artists rights; and one of a handful of musicians to have won both an Oscar and a Grammy. But as news comes out about the ambitions behind Apple's new music offering Beats 1, we might need to add media visionary to the list. While everyone has been fixated on what critics called a "cluttered and complex" offering that is Apple Music, the real story is the scope, scale and potential reach of Beats 1, its global radio channel with live DJs, which launched last week. In a recent New York Times article, Reznor was named as the brains behind the launch of a global radio station that will far exceed the likes of BBC Radio One His rationale was curiosity: In a world full of limitless choices, people disappear down into niche tastes. A very interesting question, indeed.

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