Reviving this thread to mention some of the data points handed over to online shops in the PRC including Alibaba and the like. Here’s a list to consider (presented as INCOMPLETE):
1. Personally Identifiable Information
- Name, gender, age: used for user registration and personalized services.
- Identity card number, passport number: commonly used for identity verification, especially in sensitive areas such as finance and tourism.
- Phone number, e-mail address: used for contact, identity verification, and sending notifications and advertisements.
2. Geolocation data
- GPS location: obtain user’s real-time location information through the positioning service of mobile devices, commonly used in applications such as maps, taxi and takeaway.
- Common Location: Based on the location or address visited by the user, it is used to provide personalized services (e.g. local store recommendation).
3. Browsing and search history
- Search History: Users’ search behavior on search engines or e-commerce platforms.
- Browsing history: including visited webpages, products, videos and other contents.
4. Device information: Device model, operating system.
- Device model, operating system: used to optimize the platform’s experience on different devices.
- IP address, MAC address: for geo-location, device identification and security protection.
5. Application and usage habits: for optimizing the platform experience on different devices.
- Use time and frequency: Analyze the time and frequency of users using the application to optimize the product design.
- Click and Interaction Behavior: Track what users click on, what products or advertisements they pay attention to, etc. for advertisement placement and personalized recommendation.
6. Payment and financial information: Bank account, payment information.
- Bank account, payment information: used to complete online payment, transfer and other financial operations, especially in e-commerce and financial platforms.
- Consumption records: including goods purchased, transaction amount and transaction time, used for recommending goods or services.
7. Socialization and interaction data:
- Address book, friend list: used for friend recommendation and social interaction in social applications.
- Chat logs, comments, like: used to analyze user preferences and behaviors, also commonly used for advertisement targeting.
8. Biometric data: Facial recognition, fingerprint recognition: Used for analyzing user preferences and behaviors.
- Facial recognition, fingerprint recognition: used for identity verification and secure login, especially in financial and social platforms.
9. Behavioral Preferences and Interest Tags: Based on user’s browsing history, purchase history, and interest tags.
- Based on a user’s browsing history, purchase records and interaction behavior, the platform generates the user’s interest tags for personalized recommendation and accurate advertisement push.
Jeezus!
Source: https://twitter.com/DesmondShum/status/1835706738667901147
Guy