Taylor Graham – The Privacy Dilemma: Putting Power Back In the User’s Hands
Each Sunday night, an average audience of 100 million people tune in to NBC to watch Sunday Night Football, allowing the network to charge over $500,000 for a 30 second commercial slot during that time (Ludwig, 2012). Now, imagine the amount of advertising revenue that social media giant Facebook commands during that same evening with over one billion active users. Websites such as Facebook, that glean enormous profits from their massive audiences, have another distinct advantage over television networks: their ability to track and target their audiences like hunted prey.
In recent years, websites have begun closely tracking their users’ searching, browsing, clicking and liking habits, using the data to build detailed, online advertising profiles of users. These “advertising clones” can then be sold to advertising agencies with no legal drawbacks. The ensuing gathering of information has turned the average online user into a target of online advertising and, as a result, made them increasingly vulnerable to identity theft. In response to increasingly vocal, and valid, concerns over the mounting volume of user data currently being collected, it is time for the government to step in and create policies that will allow average users
In recent years, websites have begun closely tracking their users’ searching, browsing, clicking and liking habits, using the data to build detailed, online advertising profiles of users. These “advertising clones” can then be sold to advertising agencies with no legal drawbacks. The ensuing gathering of information has turned the average online user into a target of online advertising and, as a result, made them increasingly vulnerable to identity theft. In response to increasingly vocal, and valid, concerns over the mounting volume of user data currently being collected, it is time for the government to step in and create policies that will allow average users