Whether I'm looking through my News Feed on Facebook or searching on Google I am surrounded not only by ads but ads marketed directly to me. How does Facebook know I'm looking for a new camera? And is Google hinting that I should head back to the gym?! In this era of digital marketing ads are becoming more and more targeted to the consumer based on previous sites we have visited, searches we have done, hash tags we have used on Twitter, or posts we've put on Facebook. While technology advances to make it easier for us to find things online, it is also making it easier for people to find us. How secure is our private information really?
After watching the video "This is Digital Marketing: From Ad Men to Math Men" (see video below), all I could think about was how targeted ads are now and how much access marketing companies have to our personal information. Trust is becoming a huge issue, at least to skeptical people like myself. While reading through various articles on searchenginewatch.com I found an article (see link below) that questions these huge internet companies as to how much information they really are releasing.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo were all questioned regarding the amount of information they release to government agencies. All of them denied giving direct access to any government agencies to the extent required by law. Direct access? So indirectly they provide information? To the extent required by law? So when can the law determine that the government should have access to our personal information from these sites? This raised a lot of questions for me and didn't help with my scepticism.
I realize I may have asked more questions here rather then providing more answers, but honestly I think its time we did start asking more questions. While I'm a huge fan of social media and how easy search sites are making it for us to find information, I can't help but worry about how public are private lives are becoming.
Google,Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo Deny Involvement in NSA PRISM Spy Program
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