3 Consumer-Privacy Concerns

An article I ran into on foxnews.com provided me with an excellent topic for this weeks post and my 1st concern. The article was in direct reference to the possible privacy issues pertaining to new forms of advertising. Even though advertising is progressing,  making its way into all of our "gadgets", its new found convenience may come at a price to consumers. Apple has a new application available called iAd. According to a letter sent to U.S. Rep Edward Markey:

"Information is transmitted securely to the Apple iAd server via cellular network connection or Wi-Fi Internet connection. The latitude/longitude coordinates are converted immediately by the server to a five-digit ZIP code. Apple then uses the ZIP code to select a relevant ad for the customer."

To me, this sounded wonderful at first. If my phone is able to provide me with ads that are going to help me at specific times and locations to benefit me, of course I want that app! After reading further into the article, however, and more research on other new forms of advertising, I was persuaded to reconsider.

The article above mentioned concerns about whether or not the information being provided for this app was being kept confidential. I would prefer to be in control of who knows of my whereabouts. I had planned on purchasing an iPhone eventually. The idea that my privacy will be invaded if I do so is, however, is a little bit of a deterrent.

Moving on to the 2nd form of advertising that may disturb consumers. This article, posted April 21st on alestlelive.com, talks about advertisements that are using facial recognition software. This advertising technique, although super awesome, could be dangerous for the advertising business. According to the article:

"The software is capable of not only recognizing the facial features and demographics of a viewer to push products via artificial intelligence, but also storing that data for future use. That means your face (and your social life) is stored on a network where people can scrutinize it for advertising purposes."

Like I said, "although super awesome", advertisers had better be careful. I feel like this form of advertising may be asking for lawsuits pertaining to racial profiling and things of that nature. This technology and form of advertising is just starting in the United States. In the near future, this may be affecting us all.

The 3rd privacy issue that raised a concern for me came from an April 25th, 2011 pressherald.com article. Even though this article is not in direct reference to advertising, I find it to be relevant to every Internet user. According to the article, Yahoo has announced that they will be keeping search logs for up to 18 months. With this, Yahoo also mentioned that they will also be keeping other information about their users for longer periods of time. Yahoo hopes that this will provide users with better recommendations with shopping and so forth. This will also provide more time for advertisers to reach out for the information relevant to their products. This does sound positive, but where does the intrusion stop? All of the articles above show progression by some form of advertisement into our everyday lives and privacy. Hopefully we are able to come to an agreement with advertisers/government/law/andtowhomitmayconcern of what is acceptable privacy for a reasonable person.

In closing, here is a video about online advertising and personal privacy. Take a look!