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Data Brokers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

68 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
5 HN users recommended this commentary6 months2022–2024 score 7
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN recommends it as an accessible overview of the data broker industry in privacy discussions.

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment explains how data brokers collect and sell personal information, including a stunt in which his team bought data to identify members of Congress.

“I strongly recommend this episode of Last Week Tonight” (HN, 2022)

2 strong recommendations · 4 recommendations · 4 citations · Commentary · partly dated

10 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@praveenhm Apr 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread You can now ask Google to remove your phone number, email or address from search
Removing from google doesn't go far enough, the big culprit is the data broker. Displaying your age, is the biggest worry, among your friends circle. John oliver recently made a late night show on data brokers, threatening the congress members, must watch for anyone. [this video]
John Oliver on data brokers and threatening congress members.
@thenaturalist May 2022 Recommends
on HN thread European Commission prefers breaking privacy to protecting kids
Care to share some details? When it comes to privacy invasion the EU has been a champion in curbing massively intrusive corporate practices for years now. Some of it is awful yes, but other high visibility projects have been amazing. I'm glad to be European when I look at the insanity that is the American tracking and personal data brokers industry. I recommend a recent John Oliver on this: [this video]
John Oliver on American tracking and data broker industry.
@mixmastamyk Jul 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: How to deal with children's online habits?
You may not be aware of the full extent of the problem. It's not just the "time wasting" of the old days, just ~15 years ago. Try these documentaries: - "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix - "The United States of Secrets" on PBS. - John Oliver on Data Brokers, [this video] There are others I can't remember off the top of my head. You may feel differently when you find out about companies profiting off the current (as in right now) whereabouts of your child.
Shows companies profiting from data about children.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@k4ch0w Apr 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Meta earnings presentation Q1 2022 [pdf]
Data collection, anti-trust and privacy policies. Right now it is the wild west and consumers have no idea what is being collected and how they are being profiled for ads. [this video]
Shows how little consumers know about data collection and profiling.
@nowherebeen May 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix social media
It didn't get worse because you can't see it. The value of Whatsapp is in the metadata. Not the UI/ UX. A bank used to keep your personal financial information as private. Now post-acquisition, the bank starts selling your personal financial information to insurance companies. To you, as an account holder, you don't know the difference because its all hidden away from you. Maybe you don't care because the bank hasn't increased your fees, but other people you don't know can now buy your data and target you. Here's how data brokers work: [this video]
Explains how data brokers work.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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