A Clicking Time Bomb
Written by Jake on April 4th, 2008 in Politics, Society, Technology.
In today’s Washington Post — Business Section — there is an article titled Every Click You Make. For those of use who use the Internet, regardless of your interests and/or online pursuits, this is one scary read. It seems that certain Internet Service Providers are, on a contractual basis, monitoring every single keystroke you make each time you sit down to use your computer. Your clicks are then analyzed, sanitized, and sold to companies who use the information to target YOU for certain online ads that it has determined, from your online endeavors, would most interest you.
The companies, ISPs, etc. bury their disclosures of this practice in multi-page documents filled with legal jargon that you agree to when you sign up for your internet account. Worse, they don’t actually state what it is they’re doing. They will, instead, acknowledge that they work with 3rd party advertising providers to collect certain information. Innocent enough, right? Sometimes — but in this case — no, it’s not.
While we’ve all sadly, and to our discredit, gotten used to a certain lack of individual privacy in today’s world, it is reprehensible that these companies should be permitted to mine this kind of detailed information all for the benefit of the few who seek to market their trinkets to you when all you’re trying to do is read Aunt Bertha’s blog about her trip to Hawaii.
I’d call for the government to get involved in outlawing this type of practice by ISPs, but truthfully, I have absolutely no faith in their ability to do so. And that’s sad too.
