Consumer Surveillance...

 I have just been served a dose of "reality" when it comes to "virtuality" (that will be added to the dictionary by the way with me as its creator :)  ).  A recent interview conducted on NPR opened my eyes to the exposure that we incur every time we log onto the Internet.  I had always known that you could be tracked with the cookies stored by your browser, but I had no idea as to the extremely high frequency that it occurs.  Something like 400-500 trackers were attached when visiting a few of the top websites.  The winning website for highest tracker activity was actually dictionary.com.  You may be wondering, How do people track users that visit Internet sites? Or, Why they would track you?  To where is all of this information going?

Well, there are three main ways that trackers attach themselves to you:

1. Beacons - these are invisible bits of code that stream live to the tracking source relaying information about you.
2. Cookies - These are attached simply by you visiting a website.  Many times they are embedded in an advertisement.  Many cookies give you an ID number, and a file is created with your information in it somewhere in virtual space. This file is constantly updated every time your ID number is tracked.
3. Flash Cookies - similar to cookies except that they attach themselves through your flash video player

The age-old answer to everything is, "money." Why would someone track you? Money.  They want as much information about you, the consumer, as possible so they can use it to "better their business." True, but not quite. These businesses go one step further and they hunt you down on the Internet and flaunt the very item you are looking for on your screen.  See, your information is actually stored so that it can be sold.  Data markets are places where consumer surveillance companies sell the data they have collected from trackers on Internet sites.  This transaction only takes a matter of seconds.  So, if you have been looking for a new mattress, don't be surprised if you stumble upon one while innocently searching the web for something else.  This is all orchestrated by the invasion of your privacy.  I encourage you to listen to the interview.

Google has launched EPIC, a personalized web for you, using your information from blogs, websites, profiles,etc... to filter your search results, shopping results, etc...It has partnered with Amazon.com and created the largest advertising network in existence. Please watch this video.

Besides my feeling of being violated in some way, I see this is as scary.  Not that a company knows that I wear a size 11 shoe, but the ease of them obtaining that information.  What other information are they obtaining?  How else is it being used?  Does the government operate similarly?  In this virtual world where we can carry any identity we want, where we think that we are anonymous, where life starts and stops with the opening and closing of our browser, where some hold comfort in the fact that they are just one more faceless user, do we really have any privacy?  Indeed, we may have held more privacy when life was simpler, living in small towns, where everyone knew our names because in the end, at least we knew their names too.  Out here, in this world, anyone could be watching...