FYI, the link provided for Adobe is a mashup of your website address + Adobe’s. It would help the readers if you fixed it.

Thanks for the info.

Its none of their business, whether used harmlessly or not.

Because at some point in time, sombody will figure out an unethical use for this information, and then where are we?

Going to Linux (or Mac) also helps a lot with the spyware/malware. If you need to stick with Windows, get off XP and go to Windows 7. The security updates are well worth it, as opposed to XP, where the security holes are legion.

The tracking just makes me feel like I’m putting one over on the advertisers – they’re paying bloggers and other sites I like, and I don’t ever buy any of their crap.

Kinda like how you really don’t want to go back to the kitchen of your favorite restaurants because you’ll never want to eat there again.

I’d rather enjoy my food and not see the chef preparing my dinner in a wife-beater!

Thanks, April. Great post.

However, it does bug me to constantly have to fend off people trying to track what I do online – especially when it’s passive stuff I’m doing, like browsing. The advertisers who buy this information may not have my name and address (though I’m sure they have a pretty fair geographical location, like my city/region), but someone does or can. Someone can track my isp back to my real location, lots of someones. And lots of someones ARE doing this because they HIDE or REMOVE that information prior to selling it. Not all data tracking will do that, but enough do that I don’t like it. I don’t care if I’m browsing something as innocuous as my public library’s site or as shocking as hardcore porn. I haven’t opted IN, the assumption should be that I am opted OUT.

In the real world, would you think it was so innocent if a van was following me around during my day to see where I go, how long I stay there, what products I pickup and put back, etc? Just for the sake of compiling this data and reselling to advertisers so I could have “targeted” ads sent to my house? NO. And following me around on the internet is the same thing – at least if I haven’t signed up for something or asked you to do it.

Sometimes when you go shopping for an item, but don’t buy right away, the next time you go to buy it, the price has changed. Is that because of inflation or a sale? no, it has to do with your history and what you went to look for after. Occasionally I’ll get an offer to get it for less, but more often then not the price has gone up slightly. It makes finding deals online just that much more annoying.

Consider this from the business owner’s perspective. If you’re paying for advertising, you want it to reach people who are most open to your message/service.

I don’t get any personally identifiable information about you. Specifically, we buy banners that appear for people who have visited our website, and we buy banners that appear for people who have been to similar types of websites as our’s.

For consumers, they get more relevant ads, rather than random pitches for “Obama Asks Moms to Return to School” or weight loss fads. And consumers are still free to ignore the ads. Based on our clickthrough results, most still do, but a higher percentage click than normal.

I understand that the headlines on articles like this are scary. But these ads help businesses both big and small grow and find consumers who might be interested to see their ads.

Retargeting takes place when you take some action on a site, such as adding a product to your cart, or viewing an informative video, but you leave without purchasing or signing up to learn more. Your information (IP address and the type of ad to be served to you) is sent to an ad network and whenever you view one of their ads on another site, you are served the ad based on your previous actions. If you then click the ad and make a purchase, the ad network is paid a commission.

So rest assured that in these scenarios, nobody looks at what you were doing, or what your personal information is, it’s a completely automated system that is used to only show you advertising that will hopefully be relevant to your interests.

Of course, that may not be the case in ALL scenarios, but I can’t speak for those that make the rest of us look bad and make our jobs more difficult.

I’m not concerned about tracking by itself because everything you do anywhere can be tracked these days. I am much more concerned that even though your name is not supposed to be attached to the info, it is and it is being used by the government to track everything you do. It’s called the Patriot Act. Seemingly innocent searches can land you on the FBI’s terrorist watch list and you’d never even know it. There’s nothing you can do about it though, so I guess don’t worry too much.

It is annoying to know how many people are profiting off you without having to actually do anything for you.

Anyone tracking my browsing habits would be pretty boarded.

I don’t ever buy anything from ads, so having ads that are specific to my habits matters nothing to me. Actually, it kind of creeps me out…

Anonymous ad retargeting, “behavioral” targeting does exist, but it’s anonymous. They don’t know or care who you are. They just care that you did A, A is predictive that you’re more likely than the internet average to do B, so they’ll serve you an ad to do B. It’s not rocket science and it’s not an invasion of your privacy if they don’t know who you are.

The kind of scary big data that this article suggests is happening online is actually happening offline. Your credit report showing your major financed items, your registered vehicles and driving history, and a whole host of other interesting collected bits of information stitched together with your name, address, and social security number are put together by data miners who need to market to you through direct mail, phone calls, or simply to make decisions about what town to buy a billboard.

The internet is ripe with lots of data that little good for anything else except harmless anonymous ad targeting(just remember to remind yourself that they still don’t know who you are) and site improvement. If you want to protect yourself, don’t download sketchy toolbars or plugins (especially the kind where you register your name and address) as these aren’t tracking on the sites but rather they are on your browser so they “connect-the-dots”. Stay away from viruses. And don’t register your name and address on those sites that you shouldn’t be on.

Online or offline, when you fill in forms and surveys you’re going into a database. Read the privacy notices from the site, contest, etc… If your registering for a contest, you’re essentially selling the rights to market to you. Many times just by the company on the contest, sometimes by other companies but these days, you’ll usually see an “opt-in” check box.

I hope this helps clear some things up. I do web analytics for a living and like the majority of my industry, we would raise flags if this actually started getting into serious big-brother land.