We, web users, tend to sharply rely on the
security of the personal information that we provide: bank account codes, birthday
dates, financial story and so on. But, what two and half billion people who
constantly surf the Internet do not know is that our data is being studied, compiled,
and stored by a specialized industry which is in charge of taking this material
to be evaluated and offer products such as, loans, music, magazines, etc.,
based on the information that we freely provide.
This phenomenon is nowadays called behavioral
tracking. The companies use the information to create a profile with our likes
and dislikes according to the we pages visited. Lately, those companies have been criticized because
they try to persuade of by using or doing something based on the data
collected.
Gary Kovacs, who is the CEO of the Mozilla
Corporation, designed and developed an experimental browser add-on in order to
see where is your information going on and see who is tracking you which is
called Collusion.
So, next time you share any kind of material on
Internet, the companies are going to get your data and use it for their benefit. All this information starts to be Worldwide shared from the moment that
you press the button “Enter”.
So, have you already been caught by these companies? Are we going to create false identities on Internet in order to keep your personal information safe?
So, have you already been caught by these companies? Are we going to create false identities on Internet in order to keep your personal information safe?
PS: You will find a TED talk attached. Gary Kovacs is the speaker and he expands on this topic: Behavioral Tracking.
As you mentioned in the last paragraph, once you have pressed the Enter button, you are kind of accepting to share your information, aren't you?
ReplyDeleteAll websites have a Privacy Policy in which they are supposed to specify what happens with the content you have provided, but let's be realistic, who reads it all? They know that most of people won't read it, and they take advantage of that.
I think that the only thing we can do as users is to be careful with the information and contents we share.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Kathy’s comment. We are responsible for the information that we share on the Internet. As users, we have many different options in many social networks to share pictures, music preferences, and personal information, but we decide what to share and what to keep private. For instance, I use Facebook almost every day. I have uploaded thousands of pictures because I wanted to do so, but I will never share my mobile phone or my house’s address because I know that there would be consequences. I think that people who have problems because of the wrong use of their information have the responsibility for this because they have let the world know more than what the world want to know. Obviously, industries are going to use this information to benefit themselves, but it is in our hands to control how many data we give them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the girls. Well, it is true that once you press "Enter" you are sharing your name, age, photos, important dates, address, etc. with the world. How is it that every time I log in my Facebook page there is a friend request from some guy from India or Morocco? It is because I shared my profile with everyone and I can't complain about it!
ReplyDeleteMost people complain about Facebook's privacy policies, but if you don't like them, what else could you do but deactivating your account?
Yes, I have been caught by companies which send me annoying e-mails offering useless products, and on those occasions I try to be very practical: I delete those spam e-mails, as simple as that.