How Advertisers Exploit Privacy Settings
At the RSA Security Europe Conference in London, individual privacy was again brought to the front of people’s consciences. It was debated that communication has irrevocably changed, which has already had a bad effect on personal privacy levels. Before computers became so commonplace, conversations were normally carried out on the phone or in person. But now, a lot of correspondence is done by email or online. This creates a saved hard copy of all communication.
Deleting an email will not really delete it. The recipient or sender will most likely still have a version of the email on their email account. Not surprisingly, giant data centres make it really easy to store online communication. It is argued that cheaper technology costs and continually increasing memory capacities mean that data storage and collection is now much more feasible than it was some years back ago.
You may be wondering why it would matter, but personal data is the same as money. Having access to loads of personal data will mean companies will make more money. Everyday, this is often seen whilst signing up for something new, with those ‘please cross here if you do not wish to receive any correspondence from our company’; this happens offline as well. However, how many users read the privacy policies and terms of agreement for the software we use or the sites which we use? It may end up being surprising to examine some of them and know precisely what the website can do with the data.
Facebook continues to be derided for the convoluted privacy settings and not being transparent with users. It is completely possible for anyone to go through all the info on someone’s profile if they haven’t enabled certain privacy configurations. While the security conscience amongst us will make sure to set the privacy settings appropriately, a lot of people don’t realize they are exposing themselves to potential cyber crime and identity theft. It’s not merely enough to assert that it is their own fault if their level of privacy becomes compromised. Additionally, organizations should not desire to deceive people on purpose so as to facilitate less complicated data farming.
Google has also recently been under plenty of political and social complaints for its unauthorized collection of personal wi-fi data while collecting data as part of its StreetView services. Google basically listened in on people’s wi-fi connections and saved personal data. Google’s blas response upset plenty of people and many national governments got drawn into the debate challenging the legality of Google’s actions.
The more information an organization has on you, the more they can charge companies in order to target users. If an organization knows that you are female, aged between 30-40 and have four children, then advertisers will be willing to pay more since they are able to target their advertisements more efficiently. If an advertisement is targeted at the correct user then the sellers will get more results. Marketers are willing to pay more since then they could target with toy advertisements, home improvement advertisements, kitchen advertisements and so on, compared to advertisements for weight lifting or extreme sports (although these are gross stereotypes).
Hence, it is key to ensure you have read the terms of agreement accurately. Whenever you register for anything you are signing a contract. It is actually horrible to think one ill-judged registration for a website could result in anything bad a few years later. Always read the small print, it might sound clichd but it just may save you from sticky situations. Furthermore, you should also always keep safe online safety practices. Having a great password is a great first step but you might also want to use a password manager that will increase your online security! You can stash passwords to a site and keep them secure and safe.
If you eat a lot while surfing the internet, you may experience this. Sometimes it’s so bad that it feels like what this site shows!