Advertisers these days are constantly attempting to increase
their sales and do so by using advertisements. But to the viewer itself, it
feels as if each advertisement is endeavoring to fulfill a desire one has. Each
and every one of us has had a fantasy to become someone we already are not.
These fantasies vary from achieving an physical attractiveness, an adventurous
journey or just plain rich. Advertisers
display those fantasies in their advertisements and try to affiliate that
particular fantasy to their product. But when those advertisement start to hinder
our web surfing, the question of privacy instantly opens up. Because we use the
World Wide Web on a daily basis, the many of the sites we use are being tracked
through cookies. This enables the advertisers to see what the surfer is
interested in , and therefore the advertisements that pop up while surfing are relevant
to us. Most of the people don’t even have a clue that they are being tracked. The
issue of targeting can be argued as a positive or a negative. But I feel that there are more cons than pro.
It makes an individual vulnerable when someone has access to their personal
information. What sites they have been visiting, what they buy, what things
they have googled on the web should be something that the individual is only
entitled to know. This information can get into the wrong hands and you would
have serious problems such as being scammed. The invasion of privacy may
destroy opportunities for people who search for jobs or apply for educational
institutions. The tracking is no longer limited for companies to reach their customers;
it is now accessible by anyone. My main point being that even though internet
tracking may make it convenient for buyers to have discounts and coupons on
things they continuously buy, I certainly am not willing to give up my privacy
for it.
I’ve never thought about advertisements being as a person’s fantasy but that completely makes sense. I agree with you, a lot of people don’t know that they’re being tracked, some might have an idea but not in depth like we discussed in class. Just like Google is changing their privacy settings on November 11th. They’re going to have a right to sell users’ profile names, photos, and comments in advertising. Like you said, “This information can get into the wrong hands, and you would have serious problems such as being scammed.” It’ll create a lot of upset people, and it’s completely a violation of privacy. Alternatively, a person can minimize some of the tracking by turning off their cookie settings.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you said that advertisers are trying to fulfill a consumer's desires. Everyone has at least one wish whether they would like to admit it or not, and advertisers are ready to pounce on those wants with their products. Worse yet in the "Google to Sell User Profiles, Photos in Ads" article Google has found a more clever way to advertise. As people will be more receptive to the opinions of their friends Google is now going to use their user's positive reviews in advertisements. It is basically the advertisers spreading the word of mouth on their own. I think it's important that people can opt out of this "service," but there will still be people who are unaware that their actions are being tracked by Google and other internet sites. These are the people who are the most vulnerable to the "opportunities being destroyed" you mentioned, and what's even worse is that they can have their reputations ruined as well depending on the information that was retained by the tracking system.
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