While I try to get into this new habit of writing a blog, I cannot stop thinking about an article I read last year when doing research for Lisa Nathan’s class (501). It was written by Chris Sorensen and published in Maclean’s in August 2012; the article was entitled “The Secret Internet”, and it was about “behavioural tracking”, a mechanism used by companies with an Internet presence to target consumers with personalized ads. I don’t know if it’s just me, but lately my Facebook page is completely full with ads. I have tried to change my settings, but it hasn’t worked, so I just gave up. Since I don’t use Facebook that much, I guess I can live with that.
According to Sorensen’s article, tracking consumer behaviour online is possible through the use of tiny pieces of code, or cookies, that are installed on our computers whenever we visit certain websites. Companies use our personal information (like geographic location, our interests shown on what we have seen online, and inferences about age, income and marital status) to automatically change what we can see, including online stores’ prices, which means that people with higher incomes would see higher prices than other users. I haven’t really checked—and I guess I should, at least out of curiosity—if the ads I see on Facebook have any relation to my online activity.
Advocators of behavioural tracking―most of them on the industry side of things―say that this practice ensures advertisers more web visits and a chance of extra sales, while web surfers can find services and products that suit them better, improving their overall experience on the web. Privacy advocators, though, are raising their voices against the abuses which may arise because of this unregulated and covert practice. Our race, our finances, our health can be tracked and used by companies for economic gain, and “price discrimination” could be on the rise. With companies like Orbits.com admitting having offered Mac users pricier hotels because, according to some statistics, they have higher incomes, a general concern seems warranted.
It’s funny how, whatever we do and whoever we are, big companies seem to be waiting, as crows perched on a branch, to get any crumbs we might leave on our way. And with crumbs I obviously mean money. What else could they want from us?