| They Know What You're Shopping For Wall Street Journal
quote:
Companies that conduct online tracking have long argued that the information they collect is anonymous, and therefore innocuous. But the industry's definition of "anonymous" has shifted over time.
After an epic regulatory battle in the early 2000s over Web privacy, the online ad industry generally concluded that "anonymous" meant that a firm had no access to "PII," the industry term for "personally identifiable information." Now, however, some companies describe tracking or advertising as anonymous even if they have or use people's real names or email addresses.
Their argument: It's still anonymous because the identity information is removed, protected or separated from browsing history. Facebook Inc., for example, offers a service that shows ads to groups of people based on email address, but only if advertisers already have that address. Facebook says that it doesn't give people's email addresses to the advertiser.
quote:
Still, the sheer ease with which personal details can be shared online makes it difficult for people to know whether their information is safe. A Wall Street Journal survey of 50 popular websites, plus the Journal's own site, found that 12 sent potentially identifying information such as email addresses or full real names to third parties. ...
Sometimes the information was encoded and sent in a special transmission to another company. Other times, though, people's names were simply included in the title or address of the Web page. This information gets sent automatically to every ad company with a presence on a Web page unless the website owner takes steps to prevent it.
|
|
| They might know, but what I'm shopping for is from very limited places.
I'm looking for a certain mount for a telescope. There just aren't that many places that deal with stuff like that. So I'll never get any pertinent ads.
Send me ads for a new car, or sofa - they get ignored. All the products I now want are specialty and are usually dealt with by a newsletter from a local dealer. |
|
 BlackbirdBuilt for SpeedPremium
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN
kudos:3
 ·Frontier Communi..
| reply to goalieskates
quote:
...Their argument: It's still anonymous because the identity information is removed, protected or separated from browsing history. Facebook Inc., for example, offers a service that shows ads to groups of people based on email address, but only if advertisers already have that address. Facebook says that it doesn't give people's email addresses to the advertiser.
If my eMail address is being used between companies to target advertising toward me, how is that not using my personal information? quote:
...Consider Dataium LLC, the company that can track car shoppers like Mr. Morar. Dataium said that shoppers' Web browsing is still anonymous, even though it can be tied to their names. The reason: Dataium does not give dealers click-by-click details of people's Web surfing history but rather an analysis of their interests.
If it's linked to my name or eMail address, how does that qualify as anonymous? quote:
...In separate research, the Journal examined what happens when people logged in to roughly 70 popular websites that request a login and found that more than a quarter of the time, the sites passed along a user's real name, email address or other personal details, such as username, to third-party companies.
And they still would describe it as anonymous?
This dumbing-down and perversion of ordinary language has become the bane of modern civilization.
--
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” A. de Tocqueville |
|
|
|
 StuartMWWho Is John Galt?Premium
join:2000-08-06
Galt's Gulch
kudos:2
·CenturyLink
| said by Blackbird:And they still would describe it as anonymous?
My guess is that anything other than your full name is classified as "anonymous" since that would require some (minimum) work to link it to a specific individual.
--
Don't feed trolls--it only makes them grow! |
|
 DrStrangeTechnically feasiblePremium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT
kudos:1 | reply to goalieskates
Ghostery blocks trackers here. Beyond that, I have a home-based computer services business. Even if 'they' know what I'm shopping for, 'they' have no clue WHO I'm shopping for. All 'they' know is that I buy a lot of miscellaneous computer and electronics parts. Even with trackers blocked, I see a certain amount of targeted advertising [out of what little advertising I see, thanks to Ghostery]. The trickle that gets through isn't annoying enough to shut down by other means [and every once in a while I might actually be interested in who has a sale on hard drives, wireless routers, etc.]. |
|
mysecPremium
join:2005-11-29
kudos:4 | reply to carpetshark3
said by carpetshark3:Send me ads for a new car, or sofa - they get ignored.
How do you get these ads! By email? I've never received any ads.
----
rich |
|
 Dude111An Awesome DudePremium
join:2003-08-04
USA
kudos:11 | reply to Blackbird
quote:
If my eMail address is being used between companies to target advertising toward me, how is that not using my personal information?
It IS,this is all BS so they can justify doing it! |
|
| reply to mysec
Re: They Know What You're Shopping For Yahoo spammers. Usually discount type ads in both English and Portuguese. I jhd them.
Web pages try to tailor. Google has a place where you can select admob or whatever that appear on Search? I don't use Google search, but I have seen the listing to select on the phone. Other search engines might have this selection.
Unfortunately, what is presented to check off is too broad a listing. |
|
