Target advertising has been a nuisance for as long as I can remember. But I never had this eerie feeling that someone is watching me, trying to figure out and lure my next click. Some may say that I am just paranoid. However; when I click to search for a particular item that I may be interested in buying or just to get some info for work, school, family, personal etc. then I get bombarded with companies trying to sell me whatever I was clicking for. If I look for a an airfare, book, TV, vitamins etc. then for sure I’ll get plenty of companies offering me great deals on every single item that I clicked for, to a point that is not just annoying but uncanny. It tells me that all my moves are being recorded and being this a sort new technique, I would imagine that as time passes the data collection will only get better, and more invasive considering the fast technology advances, which makes it impossible for me to predict the consequences. I do not want to see a flood of ads pertaining to my last clicks. It reminds me of like being in the middle of a third world country’s market, with hundred street vendors chasing me, watching my every move trying to get my money by tricking or persuading me into buying whatever they are selling. I learned my lesson to stay away from the likes, Clicking on them is a sure way to open the gates to a flood of vendors, it’s just like having a big neon sign saying “dumb customer here” come quick! Before he spends the money somewhere else.
“A study of California adults last year found that 85 percent thought sites should not be allowed to track their behavior around the Web to show them ads, according to the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley, which conducted the study.” The New york Times ”To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You,” by Louise Story. In this article, there is some data that backs the claim that advertising agencies are hungrier by the minute to find out as much information about you as possible. One may say, so what is the big deal. Well, I am perfectly aware that there is not much any of us can do to stop it, but just think that soon these companies will have enough information on us to do as they please, just like the credit score agencies. What stops them from gathering info on you? And what can some crazy fanatic plot against a particular group. Our personal info can also be used to deny employment, deny health insurance if preexisting conditions, etc. There is so much more to say on this issue, but the fact that the “Internet giants have spread their reach by acting as intermediaries that place ads on thousands of Web sites, and now can follow people’s activities on far more sites” The New York Times. Is nonetheless concerning in my opinion.
“Taking information without asking and then profiting from it……It’s a federal offense for anyone to open your mail…in the old country they open your mail and they knew all about you.” Time “Your data for sale”. This argument has some weight that would seem to me that our government should be monitoring these activities more cautiously. Many lives can easily be ruined if their reputation is left to these advertising agencies to classify you as a trouble maker, party animal, shopaholic, porn junkie, how much time you spend on the internet and looking at what… etc.
I can only speak for myself when I say that if it ever gets to a point when the advertising agencies know all about me, just like if they go through my daily garbage and meticulously document, analyze, what I eat, how much, alcohol, smoke, magazine, prescription, discarded condoms, toilet paper, telephone numbers, receipts, notes etc. I’ll probably be as paranoid as Rockwell when he sings “I can only speak for myself that I am an average man with an average life that just want to be left alone, but why do I always get the feeling that somebody’s watching me and I have no privacy…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY
