Constantly people are being targeted by other advertising companies when they are online. There are multiple ads that pop up on one's computer screen after clicking simply one link. For example, if you go onto Google and then type in anything whatever you type in will show ads related to that search on the side bars. To better clarify this, take a look at the picture below:
How is Google able to even do this? What type of technologies have they created to do this? Or did they even create this? To answer these questions we must first go over some of the basics. Online advertisers have developed cookies, or little codes that marketers have attached to their web pages so that they can track what websites you have been on and what kind of things you have typed into your search bars. This explains how not Google, but other online advertisers are able to know so much about you and put ads on your screen based off of your previous activity online. Currently cookies have access to your computer activities but do not have access to your smart phones and tablets. So this issue is only relevant to devices with access to the internet except smart phones and tablets.
Well online ads have been around since the internet, so what’s the big deal right? Some people feel as if this is an invasion of their privacy because online advertisers are able to access information about you. This may seem simple but the reality of it is online advertisers are developing stereotypes of you based on your online activity and sending ads your way towards what they think you may be interested in. There are both pros and cons to this. Pros, you can find what you want much easier. Cons, sometimes you can have too many ads and it can be overwhelming.
Some companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft say that they are developing technologies to regulate more of the access online advertisers have to cookies. This will be hurting the 120 billion dollar online advertising industry and limiting their ability to advertise to target markets but it will be protecting the consumers’ online activity. At the same time these same companies are still allowing online advertisers access to your information. Recently Microsoft posted in a blog that they would soon be giving online advertisers access to cookie usage over their Windows 8 and 8.1 operating systems (which has access to tablets and PCs).
When is enough, enough? How can we regulate the number of ads that show up on your screen and who should be in charge of the regulation? Should we regulate the online advertisers putting cookies on your searches? If we do, then this will drastically hurt the advertisers because they will not be able to have a set target market, or will they be able to have an online target market at all if we restrict their access to cookie usage? What are your thoughts on the use of cookies by online advertisers?
Sources: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579157780178992984
http://www.wordstream.com/advertise-on-google
In my opinion, Advertising seems like a shady business anyway because its purpose is to persuade people to buy products they might not have originally bought. Advertising is a powerful tool, and now that it is taken over the internet, people will be influenced even more. On one side, it might benefit consumers by having advertising directed from their searches to remind them of a product they were looking at and may have forgot to purchase. For example, at the beginning of the semester I needed to buy an accounting study guide, but got side tracked and forgot. A few days later I was on Facebook, and there was an advertisement for that exact same study guide I looked up days earlier. In this case, as a consumer, I found it helpful. However, one day I was on Pinterest and clicked on a pair of shoes that I loved, but they were $500. So I forgot about them, and similar to the study guide, those same shoes showed up in the advertisement bar on Facebook. I didn't appreciate the recurring thought that I couldn't afford those shoes. I imagine for some people, even worse situations have occurred. I think there should be an organization within the government that regulates the cookies and what information they can store.
ReplyDeleteCookies kind of scare me. I delete my cookies off my computer almost daily. The fact that companies know what I look at on my computer is intrusive to me. Firefox has a way to open an "incognito" window that does not store your history, does it record your cookies using this as well? I have also seen websites that allow you to access what sites are storing your information.
ReplyDeleteCookies really get on my nerves. I always delete them at the end of the day. I understand that companies want to know what people are looking at online so that they know what their customers want, but there's a point when it becomes an infringement on the privacy of others. The advertisements that pop up rarely even interest me. I'm usually looking for something very specific and they end up getting in my way. In all reality, I think cookies are more of a hindrance than a help.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that if companies lowered the amount of content that has nothing to do with the user lower the amount of traffic faced by some of the search engine giants like Google and Yahoo? If they had less ads more people would visit there sites because they feel less overwhelmed by the information that pops up and less frustrated by the amount of pop ups and random videos that seem to come up. If the decreased the amount of advertisements how will this improve customer traffic and hurt revenues?
ReplyDeleteThe depth that some advertising companies use these cookies is astonishing. Pandora collects third party cookies and supply them to their advertisers. I was listening to Pandora a couple of weeks ago and I got an advertisement that pertained to finding a job in accounting. As an accounting major, I was blown away. I wondered how on in the world Pandora found out I actually was looking for jobs in accounting. Are advertisers going to be able to go so deep into our browser history that our browser will become personalized without our knowledge??
ReplyDeleteIt is 110% bothersome to know that companies track what links I have been to on the internet and then continue on to keep a record of it. Obviously, if I was on a companies website there was something that must have interested me and I would more than likely come back in the future to keep watch on new inventory or even the latest gossip. I try to remove my cookies daily just because of all the advertisements that seem to follow me on search engines and social media. Cookies are extremely irritating and aggravating. As a matter of fact sometimes cookies discourage me from searching the web due to the advertisements that will come later on.
ReplyDeleteTo me cookies can be both a productive way of advertising specifically to the consumer but also be a hassle and disallow the effectiveness of varying advertising. Online ads have increasingly grown in the past few years. It has gone from one or two on a page to advertisements taking up more than the the given online article or web related content you are trying to view. Additionally, the idea that advertisements are able to even restrict access to a website until an advertisement has been shown or skipped is showing the ever increasing idea of capitalism. In regards to cookies, I would personally prefer to see advertisements that appeal to me, such as sports, alternative music, or workout advice rather than fashion apparel, or women's items. Cookies allow advertisers to individualize the advertisements which in return makes them at times bearable to look at. If advertisements have to be shown, I would prefer to have them be something I care about.
ReplyDeleteFrom a business perspective, I feel like it is absolutely great to be able to narrow down and target customers with the items they are interested in just by watching them navigate through the internet. Organizations are obviously saving a lot of money on advertising because of their advantage on online customers. But at the same time, as a customer myself, I don’t feel a 100% comfortable with knowing that every click I make is being track by businesses and then adjusted to what I am viewing later online. The idea of having someone basically tracking what I do it’s kind of scary and I guess also useful when I am expose to what I need for less expensive prices. I don’t know, I have mix feelings about it over all.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally that enough is enough. I know it is beneficial to business to have this information so quickly available, but there comes a point where you cross a line, and that line got crossed a long time ago. Government won't intervein because it is such a lucritive method to target markets. But they're watching our every move, keeping track of us like sheep...
ReplyDeleteI feel that this is a great way for organizations to use their resources more efficiently since this makes it easier to discover possible consumers based on what they view. This advertisements are vital to these organizations to help keep their business running, but I too have mixed feelings about them being about to track your webpages that you visit. After they track you they begin to bug you with advertisements or emails trying to get you to purchase their product. I have been getting emails from websites in which I have never even entered my email, but still get emails from them everyday causing my email to fill up quite fast which is quite frustrating.
ReplyDeleteCookies are a good way for a company to keep track of what the customer is interested in and determine which way the company needs to go, but at the same time it is a major invasion of privacy. Specifically because there are many out there who have no idea that this is happening. A lot of people aren't as informed as they should be and companies kind of take advantage of that. I think the benefits to the consumer of such personalized online advertising do not out way the risks and personal invasion.
ReplyDelete