Look at this story on how online behavior is monitored.
_______
A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month.
These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see. They can charge steep prices for carefully tailored ads because of their high response rates.
The analysis, conducted for The New York Times by the research firm comScore, provides what advertising executives say is the first broad estimate of the amount of consumer data that is transmitted to Internet companies.
_______
What are the ethics of this kind of monitoring? Government needs special clearance to peep on citizens (though this is far more arguable after the Patriot Act). Does it matter that it's industry watching your activities, not government? And if so, how? Does it matter that you leave a trail when you use, say, gmail?
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Keeping track of consumers online
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This tactic is not only used for advertising. Web sites and professional firms monitor and access information for political purposes as well. Everything from your Internet history to credit card numbers to favorite colors, anything that someone may post on the Web, is taken into account and compiled. The data is then sold to political campaigns for use in targeting voters.
My opinion is, while it seems almost scary that someone can and wants to monitor everything that people do online, we still need to remember that the Internet is a public space. Anything and everything that's posted or sent through the Internet can and well be seen by any person willing to find it. Privacy settings only go so far.
A few thoughts from a former J202er. I agree with Meredith and I thought you all might be interested to know how this came up on a panel I was on last week at the Internet for Politics and Democracy conference. There's no doubt online privacy is the next big issue, however, there are a lot of aspects to consider, it's not just black and white. Like Meredith said, it's not just online. If I had the money I could learn a heck of a lot about you by buying what you've bought with your credit card, what movies you've rented lately at blockbuster, what magazines you subscribe to and the kind of house you own. None of that has to do with online, it has to do with your day to day lives and the trail we all leave. And it's not just campaigns buying it, though I know that gets most of the coverage. This is what Yahoo and them are buying as well. Now combine all of that with what you're doing online and if you subscribed to McCain's email list for example I could pay to match that up and find every social network you are on. So when we were talking on our panel some folks in the audience were getting upset at the thought I could target ads to them, but at the same time were lecturing about how they wanted everything open on the internet and them to be able to know everything that was going on, use open source, etc etc. Seemed a bit hypocritical to me, but if you ask me asking the govt to regulate this isn't the answer. I think as we saw with Facebook, as the public learns more about this they will hold companies accountable to allow them to choose what level of privacy they get on the internet with the information they choose to put up there. In addition, people need to show a bit of personal responsibility about it all. Be careful what you put on the web and realize that nothing is really private when it's up there. Just as nothing is private when you buy that outfit with your credit card or subscribe to People magazine.
Post a Comment