I have never been the type to do much online shopping. However, I usually like to do some research on the product I’m buying before I do so. Recently, I have become very absorbed on purchasing new boots and have been doing some browsing online. Now this all ties into Daphne’s article “TMI.” Her article talks about the many ways she protects her privacy as much as possible, one way being installing ad-blocker on all her social media sites, which was when I came to a scary realization. As mentioned before, I have been doing copious amounts of online browsing on shoe sites. For the past week or two every ad that I have come across while scrolling through Facebook, YouTube, and even Thesaurus.com have all been from sites that I have recently browsed through. These ads are so specifically targeted to me that they even have the exact shoe I want plastered all over my laptop screen. My point is not how these advertising tactics are highly effective (which believe me, they are), but how I find it disturbing that companies have the ability to track my every move on their sites and then target me on personal social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. I have always been aware of the insecurities that come along with being online, though it never hit me until now.

sources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/daphnetse/2014/09/25/tmi/

https://www.google.ca/search?q=online+stalking&client=firefox-a&hs=IWl&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3vBXVLXkFMa0oQTql4LgDQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=696#rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&q=audience+targeting+ads&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=jhBDpW3RvBQdcM%253A%3BkDzk_myiujCjUM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdmdejavu.files.wordpress.com%252F2012%252F07%252Faudience-targeting-dreamstime_s_9711375.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdmdejavu.wordpress.com%252F%3B800%3B636