Oracle Reaches $115 Million Consumer Privacy Settlement

Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the database software and cloud computing company of invading people's privacy by collecting their personal information and selling it to third parties. Reuters: The plaintiffs, who otherwise have no connection to Oracle, said the company violated federal and state privacy laws and California's constitution by creating unauthorized "digital dossiers" for hundreds of millions of people. They said the dossiers contained data including where people browsed online, and where they did their banking, bought gas, dined out, shopped and used their credit cards. Oracle then allegedly sold the information directly to marketers or through products such as ID Graph, which according to the company helps marketers "orchestrate a relevant, personalized experience for each individual."

so, nothing for those actually harmed then?

[LazarusQLong]

Reading the article, the Lawyers get over $28 million, the two people that are named in the lawsuit are privacy/rights advocates and who knows what they are getting, but for the 'hundreds of millions' who had their data sold, apparently they get nothing. Wow, what a way to get rich, huh? Find someone breaking the law, get a lawyer to file, then when offered a fat settlement, take it and us plebes, as usual, get nothing

Re:

[geekmux]

Reading the article, the Lawyers get over $28 million, the two people that are named in the lawsuit are privacy/rights advocates and who knows what they are getting, but for the 'hundreds of millions' who had their data sold, apparently they get nothing. Wow, what a way to get rich, huh? Find someone breaking the law, get a lawyer to file, then when offered a fat settlement, take it and us plebes, as usual, get nothing

If it makes you feel any better, remember even $115 million was nothing but a pre-calculated business expense written off to be well worth it before the first field was populated in a Oracle customer database, with plenty of profit.

Hey! Maybe we’ll get a coupon for a DB license! (30 days, personal use, limited to 4MB RAM, Pi architecture, subject to license breach and audit if you actually use it.)

Where did Oracle get the info in the first place?

[anegg]

I read the article; it doesn't tell the reader much more than the summary. Most importantly (to me), no where is the source of Oracle's knowledge described. What nefarious data gathering ploys were used by Oracle to gather the data together in the first place? Isn't that what needs to be stomped out, not just the distribution of that data to be exploited by others?

Re:Where did Oracle get the info in the first plac

[transporter_ii]

Let me DuckDuckGo that for you:

The suit accuses Oracle of collecting the data in various ways, such as through the use of its BlueKai tracking cookies, and then selling the information directly or through its “ID Graph” and other related products and services derived from its data.

More detailed info on BlueKai here (it was a company they bought):

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06... [techcrunch.com]

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

In other words

[Sebby]

"They said the [Oracle] dossiers contained data including where people browsed online, and where they did their banking, bought gas, dined out, shopped and used their credit cards. Oracle then allegedly sold the information directly to marketers or through products such as ID Graph, which according to the company helps marketers "orchestrate a relevant, personalized experience for each individual."

In other words, Oracle are privacy rapists .

Re:

[Sebby]

D'awww - the butthurt Meta[stasize] employee strikes again [slashdot.org] :(

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I would expect someone that claims to know that "rape is a real thing" to actually be familiar with the varied definitions of the word. [wordnik.com]

Re:

[Sebby]

I would expect someone that claims to know that "rape is a real thing" to actually be familiar with the varied definitions of the word. [wordnik.com]

Exactly!

Is this anonymous butthurt Meta[stasize] employee (we all know Meta[stasize] are the worst privacy rapists of all time) going to complain to Kathi Kruse [medium.com] for using the term correctly in her piece as well? Or complain to Steve Gibson & TWiT [youtu.be] for reading it on-air?? Or to Youtube for allowing the word to be spoken appropriately in said video??? Hmmmm?????

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

$115 Million?

[sconeu]

[Larry Ellison rummages through his sofa cushions]

Ellison to the Court, "Here ya go."

what about google

[SkyLineDP]

It's interesting whether they plan to accuse and force Google and Facebook to make payments in such cases. They have the largest digital dossiers on people, which are used for both advertising and training AI on users. And it's all for free. I read how to hire AI engineers [ddi-dev.com] recently. To get a good specialist, it will cost the company a decent amount of money. Yes, I understand that they are driving the industry forward. But in the end, it's the users who pay for everything