Justin
Tsang
HSS
371
Blog
#4- Internet Advertisement
10/25/2015
The Internet is Too Commercialized
“You have mail.” To your surprise, you
receive an e-mail from a retailer you shared you e-mail account with years ago
to receive a 50 percent discount on that “IP on everything” tee shirt you had
your eyes on. Now, your inbox is spammed with advertisements from Macy, Viagra,
and Ashley Madison; all of which you have no interest on. Was it worth it?
While most users view these spam advertisements on Facebook,
YouTube, and Google as a nuisance, Facebook and Google view the advertisement
industry as a profitable source of revenue. By the end of 2015, YouTube expects
to make over $5 billion dollars in advertising revenue alone (White). In a
month, Google makes over $3 billion dollars from text ads from search results. Although
we may not know it, what we search for and do on the Internet is valuable to
advertising industries over a long-term. These advertising companies are so
invested on users clicking their ads that the cost-per-click on Google search
result is over $24 per individual. The only way to opt out of these
advertisements, such as on Twitch and YouTube, is to pay a $5-$10 monthly
subscription to the companies that permitted these ads in the first place.
However, how do these tech companies
track our activities on the Internet? While these commercial advertisements are
transparent to users, there are some hidden methods that track users’
activities on the Internet. As one of the most popular search engine on the
Internet, Google has found ways to implant tracking cookies that records users’
searches and even activities on other websites, if they are using Google
Chrome. With Google, it uses a tool called Google Match which enables
advertisers to tailor ads based on users purchase histories and information. For
example, if a user discloses his, or her, e-mail address to a retailer, that
retailer can send that address to Google to identify that user when searching
on Google or watching videos on YouTube and cater ads around that product
purchased from the retailer. Another method that Google allow advertisement
companies use is called Similar Audiences. This tool allows advertisers to
gather information on the users and find pattern of behavior that may resemble
existing customers. Therefore, they can target specific ads to these users
(Marshall).
Similar to Google, Facebook is also
tracking user activity and geographic location but with JavaScript. Facebook
created this tool that allows it to track where its users are. When a user was
on Facebook and went to other websites, such as BusinessInsider.com which has a
Facebook share button, he noticed that Facebook send a pull request to request
JavaScript to track user on the website. The tool checks what the user is
reading on the website, what you link to from Facebook, and what purchases were
made on those websites (Felix).
As a result, advertisement companies are able to build a
profile around a user depending on their e-mail database and search result. These
companies can gain information on people’s age, gender, likes and dislikes,
religious and political orientation, and even health status. For example, AdStack,
an advertising company, uses users’ email addresses to gain information on
their age, gender, and preferences in order to evaluate whether or not they are
potential consumers of any products. By building these profiles, users are showed
targeted ads along with their search results that are catered to their profiles
(Greenfield).
The problem with blocking these
tracking cookies is the play on fear these sites use to prevent users turning
off cookies. When disabling cookies or JavaScript, there is a pop-up alerting the
user that disabling cookies and/or JavaScript on the website may cause certain
functions on the site to not behave properly. As a result, many users fear to
turn off these cookies because it would affect their experience on the website.
This is true because there are cookies and JavaScript that are needed to keep
the user from losing connection to the server and optimize user experience.
Therefore, I find it deceptive for Google and Facebook to mix the exploitive
cookies with the good cookies on their websites. As a result, users are unable
to obtain the fullest user experience on these sites without giving away their
personal information. In the end, the tech and advertising giants are
profiting, while we lose our privacy and are exploited.
However, more and more users are
becoming aware of these tracking cookies and are turning to other Internet
browsers, such as Safari and Firefox, to avoid Google’s browser cookies. Unlike
Chrome, these alternative browsers give the users the option to choose which
cookies either permit or block, and in most cases, these browser usually blocks
third party cookies. Therefore, Google has been working on a new technology to
continue tracking users. This new concept allows websites to inspect the
hardware, software, and plugins of the user’s computer; such as the screen
size, the time zone, and the plugins installed. All of these features of the
user’s desktop create a unique identity of the computer and assigns an identification
number to associate with the computer (Greenfield). As a result, it is harder
for a user to block the advertisers from tracking their activities because it
would require them to uninstall software and plugins when not in use and replace
your monitor every week.
Until we speak up on the close financial ties between the Internet
companies and advertisement industry, they will continue to monetize on user
activities and disregard the privacies of their users. If you believe that
there is nothing wrong with these companies tracking our activity since we are
using their websites, then I want you to open up the command prompt and type:
ipconfig /flushdns à Open
up Chrome and Google search an item à Type in command prompt ipconfig
/displaydns. Without you knowing there are third party cookies already pouncing
on your activity on the Internet and is building a blueprint of your life. If
your privacy is not your main concern to block tracking cookies, then user
experience should be. With these tracking tools, they take a long transfer time
to send out user data. As a result, instead of using 100 percent of your
bandwidth for download speed, only a percentage of it would be allocated for
actual use (Felix). Therefore, I believe that it is time for the Internet to
regulate the commercial exploitation of consumers. It is time for user privacy
to be a major concern of everyone and to speak against these advertising
industry and tech companies tracking our every move on the Internet. For now,
all we can do is use alternative Internet browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox,
use incognito mode, clear search history and cookies after each Internet
session, and “ipconfig /flushdns” after each Google search result.
Works Cited
Felix, Samantha. "This Is How Facebook Is
Tracking Your Internet Activity."Business Insider.
N.p., 09 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
Greenfield, Rebecca. "How Google Will
Track You Without Cookies." The Wire. n.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
Marshall, Jack. "Google Will Target Ads
Using Email Addresses." Wall Street Journal. n.p., 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
Singel, Ryan. "How Does Google Make the
Big Bucks? An Infographic Answer." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 19 July 2011. Web. 25 Oct.
2015.
White, Linda. "How Much Does YouTube Pay
Partners for Their Content?"Quora. n.p.,
16 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
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