The way I view the internet is like the Wild Wild West. There are some laws here and there but no real set of laws. With the college kids in Wisconsin, they were punished because they broke the law with beers in their hand. But how do we know those beers were not photoshopped on their hands. Of course this is really a extreme but is there a define law about arresting someone off a picture?
“Privacy is important” talk effectively operates on several consumer biases, and Google is smart to employ it. As Machiavelli noted in the sixteenth century, “… men in general judge rather by the eye than by the hand, for every one can see but few can touch. Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are … .” [8] Machiavelli’s advice to political leaders applies fully in this context because consumers cannot know about any given company’s privacy practices.
With the statement above, we do not know what the company is doing nor do not see high government officials facebook pages and private information out there. As cliche as this sounds, with information comes power. The more they know, the more companies can entice you with their ads and products and what is your new favorite movie at the moment.
The only part I do not agree with is why certain sites care about race? It further increases the stereotypes. I understand the whole premise of income or a target audience for a certain product but race should not matter what you do on the internet.
I have no problem with them tracking me. I have Nothing to hide and therefore whatever information they obtain is valid. I admit I am going thru some bad money problems now and any company that looks me up can see that but I have gain a lot with the internet like the ability to take this class and meet new people and expand my horizons as a human being. The small trade off is they are tracking you. We have GPS's in our cell phones. We are constantly being watch whether we notice it or not. I rather not think about it and know that I can set my privacy to a certain degree. That is the only thing I can do.
There is such a thing as free will...Companies don't have mind control. At least over me! I pick and choose what music, movies, video games, foods, etc that I like. If I don't drink soda, a scrolling Pepsi ad isn't gonna make me jet to 7-11. I think it would be a failed approach in advertising to entice rather than focus on what is already liked. I do agree however at this point you have to treat it like "out of sight, out of mind," and not think about being watched! P.S right now I am staring at you through your picture window and those pajamas are pretty cool! Just sayin!
ReplyDelete"I rather not think about it and know that I can set my privacy to a certain degree. That is the only thing I can do."
ReplyDeleteAnd you are absolutely right. Nothing is really private anymore. The way everyone lives in a mental state of sanity is by ignoring it altogether. If everyone went crazy about being tracked or whatever, the world would be an even more crazier place to live.
Great post.
I like that you brought up ethnicity. True, it is increasing stereotypes, but at the same time, that's how these companies do what they do best. They do it based on gender as well - shoe ads for women and video game ads for men, for example. Just a wild guess, but I'm pretty sure your first choice for ads to look at isn't for a pair of sexy red stilettos!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you mention race as a factor in online advertising, I hadn't really thought of that. That's something tracking programs could pull easily from a Facebook page, etc. The implications are quite terrible though. This means that companies doing the tracking and focused advertising must consciously be building stereotypes into their algorithms, resulting in them subtly perpetuating those stereotypes. That is a negative result of online advertising that is probably overlooked by many.
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