On October 5th, the New York Times published an article titled Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers. It describes how hairdressers and bartenders are no longer the only ones who know our little secrets. If you spent more than a second thinking about it — smartphones know everything — where people go, what they search for, what they buy, what they do for fun and when they go to sleep at night. Google, Facebook and advertisers are finding news ways to track people on their phones and reach them with individualized, hypertargeted ads. How are companies able to track us if cookies do not attach to apps?
Advertisers reportedly using the new mobile tracking methods include Ford Motor, American Express, Fidelity, Expedia, Quiznos and Groupon. “In the old days of ad targeting, we give them a list of sites and we’d say, ‘Women 25 to 45,’ “ said David Katz, the former general manager of mobile at Groupon and now at Fanatics, the sports merchandise online retailer. “In the new age, we basically say, ‘Go get us users.’" Katz's comment above supports exactly what Professor Kagan pointed out in class — the best data will tell an advertisers exactly who is interested in making a specific purchase at a moment in time.
Drawbridge, a start-up founded by a former Google data scientist, has purportedly figured out how to "follow people" without cookies, and to determine that a cellphone, work computer, home computer and tablet belong to the same person, even if the devices are in no way connected. The Company claims that it is able to observe behaviors and connect your profile to mobile devices and has matched 1.5 billion devices. The article goes on to describe the fact that "if you research a Hawaiian vacation on your work desktop, you could see a Hawaii ad that night on your personal cellphone."
Isn't it disturbing to think about just how much of our private information is on our phones and how much is made vulnerable simply by downloading and using apps, searching the mobile Web or even simply going about daily life with a phone in our pockets? If you spend too much time thinking about it, you might go straight into a panic. On Wednesday, the National Security Agency confirmed it had collected data from cellphone towers in 2010 and 2011 to "locate Americans’ cellphones," though it said it never used the information. Does that mean it's time to get a new cell phone, or a new cell phone number, or both? Is it possible that the government and/or advertisers have been tracking my habits for over a decade when I first got my phone in New York City? And so continues the public debate on privacy and surveillance...
Of course, advertisers are thrilled to capture knowledge of users activities and to be able to connect desktop or iPad users to their iPhones. With all of this talk of advertisers tracking you — is there any service that allows you to "pay" for complete anonymity on your mobile device? I set out to look for such a service, but failed to find any compelling options at this point. Basically, I was trying to find a program that would allow me to pay more, so that companies could not "track" me online (similar to paying up for a Kindle device to avoid the ads). Or, does anyone have a landline anymore? If you answered 'yes' to that question, then it might be worth your time to review your bill. I recently did just that, only to discover that I was paying $4.00 per month so that Verizon would not publish my telephone number (i.e. it would remain unlisted or private). It hasn't really made a difference though — to my dismay I still receive calls from telemarketers.
Advertisers reportedly using the new mobile tracking methods include Ford Motor, American Express, Fidelity, Expedia, Quiznos and Groupon. “In the old days of ad targeting, we give them a list of sites and we’d say, ‘Women 25 to 45,’ “ said David Katz, the former general manager of mobile at Groupon and now at Fanatics, the sports merchandise online retailer. “In the new age, we basically say, ‘Go get us users.’" Katz's comment above supports exactly what Professor Kagan pointed out in class — the best data will tell an advertisers exactly who is interested in making a specific purchase at a moment in time.
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