LET’S BE ON HIGH ALERT!!!
As we have noted several times (click here, for example), companies are increasingly tracking our online behavior. So, it is imperative to be aware of this and zealously guard your privacy.
The latest major story on this topic is an in-depth Wall Street Journal article written by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Jeremy Singer-Vine. In the article, they conclude that: “The widening ability to associate people’s real-life identities with their browsing habits marks a privacy milestone, further blurring the already unclear border between our public and private lives. In pursuit of ever more precise and valuable information about potential customers, tracking companies are redefining what it means to be anonymous. The use of real identities across the Web is going mainstream at a rapid clip. A Wall Street Journal examination of nearly 1,000 top Web sites found that 75% now include code from social networks, such as Facebook‘s ‘Like’ or Twitter’s ‘Tweet’ buttons. Such code can match people’s identities with their Web-browsing activities on an unprecedented scale and can even track a user’s arrival on a page if the button is never clicked.”
Click the photo to read more — a lot more — from the Wall Street Journal about how your behavior is being tracked; click here to see a video interview with Valentino-DeVries.
A few years ago my professor had first told me about Google earth. Now with the widespread of technology it is amazing how many information are out there available and the key for success is to find a way to translate all these information in actual business projects.
Good series of comments
It is scary now, the amount of things that companies can find out about us. Whether we actually buy something or not, they can see what we viewed, how long we viewed whatever it was, etc. It is hard to keep privacy even if you wanted to. Like the other commenter said, google earth was insane enough for me to see, now there is no stopping.
Yep. So we have to be even more careful and always empty our temp files, which retain the cookies placed on our PCs.
It is true that Facebook could help for tracking customer like or no so like. And provide a huge opportunity for promotion. I remember it clearly that in class we see only 200 fans like the movie in Film Biz.
Actually, with the information emerge in the net, customer most know what they want and waiting for the “ideal” price. Try to find their needs and match is the first step to catch their eyes.
This could drastically affect productivity in the workplace if employers begin to monitor employees browsing and blocks certain websites, as instead of focusing on Facebook or updating one’s fantasy football team, they will instead focus on their work for a change!