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Richardson Pioneer - Data Privacy and Mining. WOW!

8K views 24 replies 12 participants last post by  escotch.ca 
#1 ·
So I learned this morning, that I'm not allowed to see MY transactions or contracts unless I consent to Richardson Pioneer's use of my data to third parties. (Non-Essential uses as they call it)

Interesting....

If you give a ****, maybe let your RP sales guy know that YOUR DATA IS YOUR DATA. If not, let it go and realize that the data aggregators are being paid for your information, but you aren't.

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#3 ·
My thoughts...

Commercial farms are not charities, they are commercial entities working in a competitive marketplace. There are two main points to make here:

One: Forced data collection and forwarding to an outside party, that acts as a gatekeeper and charges money to access your data is not desirable if given a choice. On the equipment JD sells, the modems that transmit the data back to JD are equipped with wi-fi and Bluetooth, but they are disabled by JD. This forces the data from the farm to be transmitted to JD servers located in India, and for the farmer to have a subscription to buy back their data for use in a proprietary JD management application [also purchased/subscribed]. There is no option for the farm to opt out of this service and pull the data locally over wi-fi/Bluetooth for use on an application of their choice. The only choice is to have access/use of their data, or not. When JD states terms of access to affiliates, they don’t mean the farmer.

Two: The data that is collected is comprehensive enough to reverse engineer the farms accounting balance sheet. Inputs, acres, yields, condition, and very accurate location data, all contribute to delivering the ingredients to create a “digital twin” of a farms operations. Do you know of any privately owed company that would intentionally expose this level of commercial detail of their operation to the market/suppliers/competitors/buyers? It opens the doors WIDE open for anti-competitive behavior in the Agricultural sector. From input costs, to market value and everything in between.

I would like to know what farmers think of this... I am not one, just work in the sector...
 
#15 ·
My thoughts...

Commercial farms are not charities, they are commercial entities working in a competitive marketplace. There are two main points to make here:

One: Forced data collection and forwarding to an outside party, that acts as a gatekeeper and charges money to access your data is not desirable if given a choice. On the equipment JD sells, the modems that transmit the data back to JD are equipped with wi-fi and Bluetooth, but they are disabled by JD. This forces the data from the farm to be transmitted to JD servers located in India, and for the farmer to have a subscription to buy back their data for use in a proprietary JD management application [also purchased/subscribed]. There is no option for the farm to opt out of this service and pull the data locally over wi-fi/Bluetooth for use on an application of their choice. The only choice is to have access/use of their data, or not. When JD states terms of access to affiliates, they don’t mean the farmer.

Two: The data that is collected is comprehensive enough to reverse engineer the farms accounting balance sheet. Inputs, acres, yields, condition, and very accurate location data, all contribute to delivering the ingredients to create a “digital twin” of a farms operations. Do you know of any privately owed company that would intentionally expose this level of commercial detail of their operation to the market/suppliers/competitors/buyers? It opens the doors WIDE open for anti-competitive behavior in the Agricultural sector. From input costs, to market value and everything in between.

I would like to know what farmers think of this... I am not one, just work in the sector...
A friend of mine has been saying this for years. He said, "why do you think that most of the software updates for combines are updating "documentation" and yield monitoring. ?". One may think "who cares if they know how much and where I unload my cart" but, in fact, the whole monitoring process is like having an auditor following your every move on the farm and recording everything you do. Lets of guys feel violated when asked to complete a survey. This is MUCH worse IMO. I quit my job of 25 years because I thought that the grain company that I worked for was taking too much control of the customers and was "mining" the profits made on the farm and it was no where NEAR as bad then as it seems to be getting now. I hear about how the elevators are being run now and how the farmers are being treated and it leaves me dumbfounded. A far cry from the farmer owned Coop that I started working for in 1980. Sad times.
 
#6 ·
The JD example is just one of many. Almost all digital Ag services today are exploiting the farms data. If you can't pull it direct from the equipment to the application of your choice, but are forced to work through gatekeepers, you are being exploited. period.
The exact reason manufacturers have gone to cloud services. Farmers need to form a coalition or lobby to stop this, or be given a choice to be paid for their info.

We are great at working independently, thus an easy target for exploitation.
 
#9 ·
So... I work for an Ag shortline [CDN] and we are not happy with the direction the industry is taking. We have been working on federal and provincial legislation to sort issues like this out. In the US there are strong farmer associations like Nebraska Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau nationally, that are also working on this. In Canada, what associations represent AB/SK/MB farmers? I would like to work with them on moving this forward from the farmers perspective...
 
#13 ·
I’ve just got no ****s to give on who uses what or if they have my GPS locations on my cart unloads! What earthly good will that do anyone!
Great example Joelsixpack! On it's own, your cart unloads and locations probably don't carry a lot of weight, (No pun in tended for this years dismal crop) but start adding them to 100,000 different locations in a province. Maybe a million locations in Canada. You can start to paint a pretty accurate picture of yields in areas and get them down quite detailed. Add bin inventory to that and it's locations.

So what importance is that ? Well tie that to weather info points, soil maps, elevation models, fertilizer and chemical use from your dealers, possibly your own climate view machine and now you have a financial performance model. From that land value models for prospective clients (Potential buyers could be foreign, pension funds, or a very large brethren conglomerate that have estimated control of 45% of all ag in Canada already)

Further to that, inputs are already targeted at different prices for different areas of production. ie. squeeze as much juice out of the orange as possible.

Prospective world buyers are very much interested in knowing yields down to the field level. Satellites are ok, but real data is much, much better. Stats Can usually doesn't get real numbers, neither USDA, but China.... they probably have some accurate info. Would only make sense considering the amounts they import.

Those are just a few of today's tangibles, not what we don't know about or see. Because we lowly farmers cannot decipher the use of the data, does not mean there is no use, nor that we shouldn't care.
 
#17 ·
So I learned this morning, that I'm not allowed to see MY transactions or contracts unless I consent to Richardson Pioneer's use of my data to third parties. (Non-Essential uses as they call it)

Interesting....

If you give a ****, maybe let your RP sales guy know that YOUR DATA IS YOUR DATA. If not, let it go and realize that the data aggregators are being paid for your information, but you aren't.

View attachment 163234
On behalf of Richardson, please accept our sincerest apologies for this system error on our part – we are grateful it was brought to our attention. This is not how our platform was designed to function and the coding issue has now been fully rectified. You are absolutely correct: Our customers always retain full access to their transactional and contract information and are not required to consent to Richardson’s use of personal information for the “Non-Essential Purposes”. We do not force data collection. Respecting the privacy rights of our customers is a primary priority to Richardson International and its subsidiaries. We have updated our corporate websites’ privacy policy to ensure clear definition of how data is used and to what end purpose.

Of particular importance to note: Should any members within this thread have additional concerns or questions related to data collection by third parties across any of our digital applications or our current privacy policy, we welcome you to please reach out to your local Richardson Pioneer Ag Business Centre.
 
#19 ·
Richardson International thank you for providing this clarification. In addition, I would like to make the suggestion that a contract that requires you to "opt out" of data sharing to third parties by initialling a box is not necessarily how contracts are to be written. Businesses typically are legally required to provide an "Opt in" clause.

In order to appear as though RP is not trying to deceive or hide it's intention of data sharing, it would behoove a re-write of the contract requiring participants to "Approve" or "Opt-In" to data sharing rather than having automatic approval.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.
 
#18 · (Edited)
@Richardson International Could you please provide a link to your privacy statement. I was unable to find it on your websites. Also, I see from your website that Farmers Edge is the solution you are using. Looking at their website, i also could not find a privacy statement. However, when I read through some of the investor documents I found:

The Company leverages our data and analytics to develop a unique portfolio of products, disrupting large agriculture verticals including the crop insurance and other financial services, carbon offset, and broader agriculture technology industries. The Company focuses both on getting acres on subscription with growers, which then allows for multiple opportunities with the broader agriculture ecosystem, and on building partnerships with other agribusinesses who offer our platform alongside their own solutions.
https://www.farmersedge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Management-Discussion-Analysis.pdf


It is clear from this, that farmer's data is being leveraged for profit. I think more clarity is required.
 
#20 ·
For our corporate privacy policy and all legal disclaimers, please refer to: Legal - Richardson International

Richardson Pioneer respects the privacy rights of our customers and those utilizing any products and/or services we offer through our Ag Business Centres.

For concerns related to Farmers Edge, and for access to their privacy policy, we highly recommend contacting a Farmers Edge sales representative directly to ensure no misunderstanding: info@farmersedge.ca or 1 (866) 724-3343.
 
#22 ·
Withholding Consent: Legal - Richardson International

Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you can refuse to consent to our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information, or you may withdraw your consent to our further collection, use or disclosure of information at any time in the future by giving us reasonable notice. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you or continue to provide you with some products, services or information which may be of value to you. During the term of any agreement you have with us, you may not withdraw your consent to our ongoing collection, use or disclosure of your personal information in connection with such agreement.


@Richardson International I think its great that you are participating in this dialog. That is not common. Cheers.
 
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