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The Thought Show: When Companies Track Your Life; Tipsters on Trial; Loneliness

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A police CCTV camera observes a woman walking

23/06/2016 GMT

When Companies Track Your Life; Tipsters on Trial; Loneliness

BBC World Service - The Thought Show, When Companies Track Your Life; Tipsters on Trial; Loneliness

How companies use our personal data; tipsters in league with bookies; loneliness

How companies use our personal data; how social media users are relying on tipsters to place bets without knowing they are in league with bookies; what it means to be lonely.

How are companies using our personal data? Online retailers track us so they can sell us things, our banks and credit card companies know all about us and the big computer and telecoms companies could track our internet searches, our phone calls , and even our location. But this isn’t the first time companies have gathered sensitive data about their customers. More Or Less tells the shadowy story of how the personal details of Americans were pooled among insurance companies more than a hundred years ago.

Will you be betting on Euro 2016? Most people will probably rely on national allegiances if they decide to gamble, but thousands of social media users, particularly in Britain, are now taking advice from strangers on where to place their money. A new breed of tipster on Twitter and Facebook offer free advice but many are actually in league with the bookies. They’re paid around 30% of all the money their followers lose. So how much faith should people have in these new gambling gurus? Kate Lamble reports for BBC Trending.

What is loneliness and why do we feel it? Why do some people feel lonely when surrounded by people and others never feel lonely at all. Studies of twins in Holland have shown that loneliness has a hereditary element. And it can be catching, too. In the Why Factor, Mike Williams speaks to the Chinese artist Li Tianbing about how growing up under China’s one child policy shaped his art and to a Swedish entrepreneur who invited eleven people to come and live with her to combat her loneliness.

(Photo: A police CCTV camera observes a woman walking. Credit: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

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