Thursday, March 19, 2009

Is somebody watching you?

Many online companies have developed tools that can track every click a person makes, which articles they read, which advertisements they click, the purchases they make, the length of time on a page, and more. This has brought up privacy issues. Should this be self regulated? Or state and/or federally regulated? It is definitely great to see ads on the pages you look through that pertain to your interests. But to have a company know what should purchase? Now, that’s a different story.

I found an article from the FTC, dated back to February 12th, about the issuance of a report describing their ongoing examination of online behavioral advertising. It describes both the advantages and disadvantages of behavioral advertising to consumers.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/behavad.shtm

1 comment:

  1. Sting should re-write his song:
    "Every click you make
    every link your take
    every word you search
    every thing you save
    I'll be watching you."
    Come on, somebody in our class must be musical enough for the spoof -- I'll write, you sing...

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