Yes, but how much of it is "guessable" through other data points?
I totally agree with the argument that there's no value to that data without the hankering for privacy around it. But it's an anomaly in the vast sprawl of data harvesting and mining and profiling which is done. A lot of which without disclosure.
Can Google know when a marriage is struggling
Facebook can because they do emotions analysis. But there’s a ruling against them selling against that data.
...or, a person is cheating on their partner?
All three could, but it would require many dots to be connected. Yet, all three have listening devices (Facebook are actually the ones who applied for the patent on turning on phone mics and cameras remotely - the NSA may disagree). Yet, I would say Amazon is closest to tie those dots together (see later in this comment).
Edit: Cheating is probably not too difficult to recognize, especially not if people are heavy FB/IG users. Unless they have solid discipline, there's probably easy to recognize patterns.
I'm old fashioned and I would subscribe to the theory I don't mind sharing that data with the provider I've chosen, if only I knew that's all to it.
I went with the wearables/health example because the loans and insurances issues are the easiest to explains and they tend to hit home without needing to write a whole dissertation.
But that pesky JavaScript which triangulaties despite no allowed location access is very valuable too. Location can be used for disposable income estimation. Btw when did you allow pretty much any website which wishes so to read out your browser history? Pretty sure you never did so, at least not explicitly. It's just a cookie though and it's very widespread in use.
Do people who have Ring smart doorbells and security cameras know that they operate facial recognition, and share data with more than 400 law enforcement agencies in the USA? That’s only disclosed in legalese without disclosing more than “may share data with relevant third party providers” (or something like that).
Do people know that Amazon has applied for a patent which allows them to make recommendations based on what the (future) drone delivery camera records?
"When we delivered those condoms for your weekly Thursday visit to your mistress [she has Ring devices, busted], we noticed that your solar panels are first Gen and could do with some upgrading which will improve their efficiency. Here's a list of recommended suppliers" [Added to your profile: operates solar panels, higher disposable income than previously estimated, can make recommendations on average 10-12% more expensive]
But, once they have the baseline, they can likely find other data points that quite accurately map, that aren't covered in the ruling.
Amazon are great at screwing us while helping us - it is all so convenient, what could go wrong??
The problem is that even the tech savvy and security conscious can't keep track and at every point, there is a hundred new points created.
Yup, and that's why it is so important that we keep raising awareness. So people will support regulatory efforts like the GDPR and California's new online privacy law. Rather than approve one of Trump's first acts which was to give ISPs more access to commercial use of customer data.
Having too many regulations sucks but well-crafted ones can almost nullify the potential harm.
"Use that data internally as much as you want, but you can't share it. And you can only use your own platform data"
It doesn't matter how many new data points are created then. Shareholders aren't going to keep agreeing with multiple $5bn (and higher) fines every year. That will eventually lead to changes in the board room and on executive level.
Of course, then the battlefield becomes what consists of own platform data. Amazon owns RING so that's platform data. Facebook WiFi requires location access to be set to always ON, so that's own platform data even if it's the pages/businesses who use FB who provide the WiFi.
The more people understand the potential of data harvesting and profiling, the closer we come to potential solid regulations. Only those can eventually protect us and your data is worth that protection. It truly is.