Archive for April 16th, 2013

Pssst: Facebook is stalking you in stores ….

April 16, 2013

Why?

Ostensibly to see if its sponsors’ ads are working.

But, some skeptics (e.g. me) think that there may be other motives, too.

Here’s the scoop.

Last year, Facebook entered into a partnership with a company called Datalogix.

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Everybody knows what Facebook does.

Datalogix, not so much.

Datalogix is a firm that records the purchasing patterns of more than 100 million American households.

When you stop by the supermarket … you probably hand the cashier a loyalty card to get a discount on your items.

That card ties your identity to your purchases.

Your sales data is sent over to a server maintained by Datalogix, which has agreements with hundreds of major retailers to procure such data.

Source: Slate

Hmmm.

Facebook and Datalogix … why the hook-up?

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Taxes: In total, how much do Americans pay in taxes? For what? To whom?.

April 16, 2013

Since yesterday was tax day, I thought you might like to see a recap of how much dough (some) Americans fork over to the government …

Americans pay a tad over $5 trillion in taxes to the Feds, States and Local Governments.

Technical note: In government parlance, the taxes are called “revenue”.

By taxing authority

Drilling down, the $5 trillion is split roughly 50%-30%-20% to the Feds, States and Locals, respectively

Here’s more detail …

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