Every time I write about privacy and security on the internet I get a whole bunch of people who accuse me of paranoia. They maintain I am looking for conspiracy theories — if you have nothing to hide, then why worry who is following you on the internet? Besides which, I’ve been told, as consumers we have always been followed and our preferences noted.
That is correct. However, if I have a company counting how many toothpastes of a certain manufacturer have been bought, then that is fairly harmless. To actually determine who in particular bought that toothpaste, some companies in the past have had to send out students with clipboards and lengthy questionnaires to find out who was buying what.
Not any more. Now the internet, with its sneaky robots, or bots as they are called, is following everything you do. And you don’t know about it. More than anything else, it’s the secretiveness of the whole exercise that is so scary. It has nothing to do with whether we have anything to hide. It has everything to do with the fact that there is some information about ourselves we just don’t want to share unknowingly.
This kind of unease is confirmed when one reads articles such as the one on Computerworld yesterday. It discusses the fact that customers taking part in a marketing application launched by Sears, Roebuck and Co and Kmart Corp may be “unintentionally” providing the retailer with extensive personal information.
The My SHC Community program is only just shy of contravening the US Federal Trade Commission standards regarding tracking personal data. Harvard Business School’s Assistant Professor Ben Edelman states that this particular software is not something you’d want on your computer, or in fact on anybody else’s computer.
The critical issue here is that this particular, supposedly harmless, application tracks every site you go to. It checks every search you make, every product you buy, every product you look at — even if you don’t buy it. This includes such sensitive sites as your account on your bank’s site. It also sniffs through email headers.
All of this collected data is sent to an internet measurement firm called comScore Inc. Of course My SHC Community states that members of the site have the option not to participate and do not need to install the tracking software.
That sort of statement presupposes that every member knows how to avoid signing up for it. And as one has heard in the past, sometimes it gets quite complicated to avoid participation. See what Facebook’s Beacon originally did to members.
Then it is all hidden behind the rather benign word of “research”. I think what really worries me is not the fact that our activities are so minutely followed on the internet. In fact, I really have nothing to hide.
The huge problem is that I don’t trust people any more. I don’t trust that a CEO won’t mine all of the data for the benefit of his company. If he can get away with it, he will. It’s the fact that companies have to post profits for their shareholders that makes for scrupulous senior management, or the fact that the CEO will pocket a huge bonus if he posts good profits.
Whatever the reason behind the kind of unethical, cheating and lying style of business practice in use in the global economy nowadays, it is at the expense of the consumer — the ordinary person. That’s all of us. We have to be protected against this kind of greed. The sooner relevant legislation is passed in all countries, the better.
like jeremy clarkson said the other day , why worry , you write a cheque , you have all your details on the voters roll.
so why worry , when all the information which you hold in high regard is already available for free in the public domain .
if i were you , i will not even come any way near a computer .lol
ps
you know i am joking .
Hi Anya
You are very right..it seems that every new piece of technology forces us to ‘tap’ into or be tapped into a surveillance system, not Big Brother, but the grand Daddy of the situation. Whether or not we have anything to hide, the fact we are being globalised and expropriated from our ‘selves’ – under the guise of research (Wal Mart often ‘loses’ the data collected) ensures we have no real civic rights except within the context of consumption and all that it implies…f*$% crazy. what happened to privacy?
Hi Anja
The internet has changed the rules for consumers. I don’t buy expensive goods that I know nothing about without consulting several consumer sites any more.
I think that the internet poses a serious dilemma for advertising companies. Obviously life is becoming less and less private. I am more concerned with governments globally who are invading private citizens rights under the guise of terrorism.
3000 Americans died on 9/11, but 151 000 civilian Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. The amount of civilians who have been killed globally since 9/11 by terrorists pales into insignificance. Globally, repressive legislation is being passed. In both USA and UK you can be detained indefinitely without any recourse. This legislation is where our invasion of privacy is at the highest risk.
I’m less worried about the CEO’s because frankly If baked beans taste bad, or are too expensive, I won’t buy them no matter how much you spend on advertising or how many questions you ask to profile me. I might only ever taste your product once if it tastes bad. But this is not really the issue because no matter how much you attempt to profile me I will be unlikely to change.
When I am looking for something niche, I will use a search engine, and be presented with a list of options to peruse. This is how things work today.
But we are not really talking about products here. We are talking about the rights of governments to legislate and pass laws so that it becomes mandatory to store all of my internet footprints, so that If one day for whatever reason I form a part of some threat to who ever may be in charge at that point in time, my past can be raked through to find any bit of supporting evidence of how much of a baddie I might be. this is the real greed that we need to be concerned about.
For those that have gmail, have you noticed how when you read a message in gmail, the ads on the side of the page often correspond with the content of the message. For instance, ads for baking resources when reading a mail from a friend describing a recipe. Its all rather sinister.
Spot on there Andrew – I have noticed that, different mails i have sent/received have advertisements on the side that relate to the content. A bit cheeky really.
Regarding the Jeremy Clarkson story. He has had the good grace to retract his ignorant blahblah. After the newspaper printed a copy of his bank statement as part of his ‘expose that we are all safe’ he has discovered that a debit is coming off the account.
In the UK there are certain charities that do not need your signature in order to collect money off your account. Clarkson now has admitted that one of those charities is helping itself to £500 of his money every month. And there’s not much he can do about it.
Andrew. Totally right. Every company that Google buys, is chosen because its product or service will assist Google to determine your preferences even more accurately. According to them, so that they can fine tune your search requests. Ja right.
Gmail is a trade off – you get a free email account with huge storage and they get to stick tailored adverts on your page. If you don’t like it pay for an account that won’t do this. Google at least uses some of their revenue to provide great free programmes like Google Earth which is more than can be said for many other companies.
I see the many tracking bots every time I run a spyware scan and to be honest I don’t care if they are tracking me but I would worry if some government agency could turn up at my door and arrest me because of my internet searches (as has happened in the UK).
I get more upset by companies I have legitimate business with selling on my information to just about anyone. If I want a new credit card/ insurance/ windows I’ll come and find you myself – thanks.
Hi,
I think it´s great that if somebody is doing something illegal that the person is caught (I say this as I hide all my illegally downloaded mp3´s…) but in all seriousness if a person is doing something that they shouldn´t be, its great that technology has evolved to catch that person! About consumer buying and personal information, it´s not like that info is going to people that you know – for example, I could understand why a married man with kids would not want his family to know he visits xxx sites – but why should he care if its some other person (probably even in another country), who doesn´t know him personally. As long as everything is legal – e.g. bank details aren´t stolen – i don´t have a problem with somebody I don´t know seeing what I am doing and buying on the internet even if it may be the odd visit to an online shop (that i probably wouldn´t want personal friends to know that im buying at)- i don´t know that person, they dont know me why would I care…
I agree with you, this is not paranoia, this is just safety measure you want to remind all of your reader, I understand that, but most of the people do not believe that hackers are anywhere and they could be victimized if they do not take precautions.