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Something disturbing about how Panelists are tracked and information shared between "competitors"


schludermann

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Folks,

We all know that we are being tracked, that is not what this post is about. In an earlier post, I made reports of that type of Activity as revealed by the EFF's Privacy Badger browser extension..

What I am discussing here is far more insidious, the fact that independent, competing companies, are generating information specifically for sharing between themselves with negative outcome for ourselves.

See the Tellwut blog, 14-ways-increase-chances-qualifying-online-survey, item 4 from the list.

"4. Be selective of your membership. A reason that you may not qualify is because you did a survey first on another site, as many survey sites pull surveys from similar sources. With modern tracking capabilities, you may become disqualified from a survey without even seeing the questions."

I'm sure many of the more season panelists have had the accusation at the start of a survey "you've already completed this survey".

However, the survey screening questions were new to you.  I suspect that poorly design, tested and implements software was responsible for those kin of messages.

But I think that we may not even see all surveys that meet our profiles because this all knowing software deemed us ineligible and block panelists' the opportunity.

In a previous discussion with mysurvey, before they dissolved, I had a discussion with support about not being compensated for a multipart survey. One of the reasons included on a long list of reasons for being rejected from a survey was:

Waypoint -  This means that the system detected that you had already completed the same study via another survey panel and is unable to use your responses as this would skew the information provided to the client."

So I'm quite confident this is a very prevalent practice, throughout the industry, globally.

Since there is no transparency on this practice, how the information is generated, except for "fingerprints" I.E. network address, browser version, OS version, cookies and so forth. Of that, what information is used, except as perhaps under the general privacy statement shared with our partners and 3rd parties", how these determinations are made, how long this information is retained, is it retained in a central location, is that central location secure, who is responsible for the efficacy of the information. You get my drift, there is a loose and fast attitude because we are not informed and since these panels don't disclose what they are doing, they can do anything. We already know how willing panels are willing to cross into unethical conduct.

Among other tactics, I suspect that these companies are leaving behind Browser cookies for others to find, even cookies from other browsers.

 

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I constantly clear my browser cookies and cache. I also have an ad blocker. That probably isn’t enough, but it’s all I have. I’m to the point where I just don’t give a rip anymore. No matter what, the deck is stacked against survey takers. They will continue to use sketchy shouldn’t even be legal tactics to continue raking in the money while we beg for crumbs.

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