Big Brother

We recently read in my Integrated Marketing Campaigns class an article from TIME Magazine about how much information was being tracked on individuals over the internet. Basically, the author Joel Stein tells us each individual is tracked, and companies sell information they receive on you to better target the advertisements you see online. A lot of people find this extremely creepy, but some find it somewhat helpful. Personally, I would rather see a relevant ad on the banner of my g-mail about blogging, than something completely irrelevant like laundry detergent.

But the creepiness isn’t what today’s post is about.

Instead, I’d like to point out a few flaws in the system and show you some funny things I figured out after I looked at what various sites think about me (see suggestions from Stein here).

• When I checked two days ago, Google thought correctly that I’m a female between the ages of 18 and 24. Today, Google thinks I’m a 25-34 year old man. Named Sarah? Really? And it also thinks I’m interested in Women’s interests (but again, thinks I’m a man).
• Google also thinks I’m in Australia, and doesn’t know I returned over a year ago.
• Google does however correctly note that I am interested in Advertising, Marketing & Event Planning.
• The Bluekai registry has an extensive list of items associated with me, a few of which I find hysterical. They believe I am a 40-49 year-old married man who’s estimated household income is between $20-29,999 who recently graduated from school and is in between jobs. I also really like laundry detergent (I did a project on laundry detergent last year for school).

So sure, they’re tracking you for your current interests, and if you wanted to find creepy things about me you probably could. But, do they really know everything about me? No, but they might soon. Until then, I will continue leading my double life as a 40 year-old married man.

If you are creeped out by the privacy issues at hand, I URGE you to read the end of the TIME Magazine article by Joel Stein which gives examples of sites that give you options to see who is looking at your information, what information they know, and how to get them to stop.