Read this :
http://www.taz.de/!81248/
It's amazing how much of ourselves can be revealed from something as simple as our online activities.
In short, Facebook stores our usage data.. our friends, status postings, comments, photos, locations, etc etc. Advertisers pay good money to use these data for custom advertising. Do you notice how the page sometimes intelligently flash out ads or page suggestions that fits your interest? Like just a while ago, it has an advertising on Pilates..may be my data indicates that I like sports stuff?
It does sound scary but yet..unavoidable in the current digital world. Everything can be conveniently stored and saved when it's digital.
At the other end of the spectrum, in the world of smartphones, privacy is becoming an increasingly outdated concept, argues technology writer Sam Biddle. What might once have been considered "creepy" and invasive is becoming normal...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15730499
I've been working in the market research industry since the late 90s. In MR, we collect consumers behaviour data, manually. Manually, we screen and select respondents that fit our target profile, and ask them questions that we designed manually based on marketers' needs and objectives. The MR code of conduct states that we can only analyse the findings at agregate level and we aren't allowed to reveal or share individual respondent responses in any manner. After all, it is more relevant to look at overall data patterns to make out representative findings.
So..shall we be afraid of using Facebook? Shall we switch off all the smart features of our smartphones? Or better still switch back to dumb phones?
I don't know.
As the article rightly quoted..
privacy is becoming an increasingly outdated concept.
Personally, I'll still use Facebook, 4sq, and whatever not..strictly for fun and social purposes.
They can track all my comments, postings and check ins all they want, I'd be glad to be part of the statistics, just like a respondent in a traditional MR survey. I doubt anyone will take to scrutinizing an individual data to come out with a marketing plan. It should be in terms of overall data trending.
UNLESS, I commit a major crime..or I become a huge celebrity one day, then my individual data will be very valuable and in demand !
