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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2622 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 17, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Twitter is advertising Scottish HIV testing, shortly after I visited a gay bar. Does it know something I don't?

Did you pay with a credit card? Selling purchasing data by credit card companies is probably super-duper illegal but I'm pretty sure it happens.

I did, but I think the other suggestion, namely that I ended up googling HIV stats is the more likely one.

Selling purchasing data by credit card companies is probably super-duper illegal

Is it still super-duper illegal if they "anonymize" the data before selling it?

Did you do any searches or view any articles about HIV or gay issues while writing that comment? That's more likely to be the cause.

If I did, it was only because people here wanted me to share actual sources about my claims regarding HIV and monkeypox prevalence. Oh dear, I think you're right.

Your phone probably feeds geolocation data to ad networks. The rest is obvious.

In the US it's a current event: T-Mobile claimed selling location data without consent is legal—judges disagree. One might be able to opt out.

It's not the cell companies that are (mostly) doing this -- y'know those apps that ask permission for your location data with the disclaimer that they might share it with (meaning sell it to) third parties?

They do that -- it's a common & easy monetization strategy.

Technically you can 'opt out', but the app won't usually work if you refuse it access to your location; I guess you can put a fuzzer on it if you want, but hardly anyone does.

The naive part of me wants to believe they stopped it after 2019, but the realistic part of me thinks they just added more legalese and layers into the process so that when they get caught next time, the blame won't be on them but on some throw-away company which would promptly fold and be replaced by another one. And T-Mobile (and every other provider) would be like "we're shocked! shocked! to find that data selling is going on here!"

Where are the parentheses in that statement?? Which part is Scottish????

(((Scottish)))

If a Scotsman finds out you knowingly transmitted human immuno-deficiency virus to them, they're sure to SHIV you.

I mean, SIV is the simian equivalent/originator of HIV, but I don't think Scotland is quite so far gone.

Must not make jokes about sheep…

Must not make jokes about sheep…

Must not make jokes about sheep…

I think I've barely seen any sheep, they must be chilling up in the highlands!

They're... otherwise occupied. And indoors.

(The jokes are usually about Wales rather than Scotland, and of course not fair in either place, but occasionally I can't resist proving the hinterlands right about how oppressed they are.)

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