Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Tracking profile preserves privacy

preserve privacy pending puzzle'd profile to pitch products
  (-2)
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Google* does not want to know where I live. It does not want to know how old I am or my favorite kind of food. Ultimately the information it seeks is what kind of products are best advertised at me. Information that compromises my privacy is merely a means to that end.

If I'm going to be tracked anyway I may as well lay back and try to enjoy it. This idea will help me to do so.

I propose a data store individualized by person held by the advertisement tracking company. This data store would not contain any explicit information about the person but would still provide useful information about what kind of product I'm likely to be interested in: an individualized demographics profile.

The data would be mixed by relevant information class and only accessible in bits and pieces to preserve privacy.

A 23 year old man in Los Angeles may want similar products to those a 30 year old man in Buenos Aires wants. You don't need to know which I am to pitch me those products. Storing the information that I'm in that class of consumer lets you pitch to me without knowing about me.

I know this hasn't been very articulate and I welcome editing but I hope you get the general idea.

*as an example of a company that serves advertising

Voice, Aug 15 2012

answer to phron http://www.care2.co...men-are-doomed.html
[pashute, Dec 05 2012]

Google To Let Advertisers Upload And Target Email Lists In AdWords With Customer Match http://marketinglan...atch-adwords-144307
using hashed profile data [Voice, Oct 05 2015]

[link]






       Except that every bit of information helps. A local company in Los Angeles doesn't want to advertise in Buenos Aires, so your location does matter.   

       In less detail I'm not sure I understand this. You're saying that the data agregator should hold less explicit information, without clarifying why they would want to.
MechE, Aug 15 2012
  

       They'll want your name and address details when you order some of the products they are advertising to you, so they know where and to whom they should send them.   

       They'll want your age if you order XXX porn or suchlike. You're just shitty that the world is becoming a difficult place in which to be anonymous, right?
UnaBubba, Aug 16 2012
  

       Privacy: freedom from that which embarrasses or disadvantages one.   

       PPPPPtPP hides my terribly embarrassing name and mailing address, while preserving the important marketing data that I’m a voracious consumer of Teletubbies / Wiggles slashfiction and related memorabilia.   

       Seriously, I think the practical need for privacy would be practically eliminated if our financial identities – that which can cast one into lifelong abject poverty due to some miscreant appropriating enough of one’s life details to rack up, say, crushing credit card debt under one’s name – would be eliminated if the banking industry would replace their 100+ year antiquated identification schemes in favor of sound 1970s+ cryptographic ones.
CraigD, Aug 16 2012
  

       I'd like a profile that sends horrendous quantities of devastating viruses to cookie pests trying to latch on to my trackway.   

       That said, I'm now intrigued as to CraigD's surname.
Phrontistery, Aug 16 2012
  

       see link for answer to your question.
pashute, Dec 05 2012
  
      
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