A discussion about privacy, consumer information, and data mining in the Facebook/Google age. Was having a conversation with a friend of mine on Facebook about this, he's concerned about this sort of thing, uses an alias on Facebook and elsewhere, never gives any of his real information on the 'net if avoidable at all, to keep companies from building up that "dossier" (his word) on their purchasing habits and name brand loyalties.
I see a lot of consumer privacy advocates who are warning us (sometimes by screaming at the top of their lungs about the end of the world in effect) about the dire dangers of Facebook knowing all this "information" about us, or Goggle, or whoever.
What I have not found, so far, is a persuasive argument for why I would care if Facebook and Google and other advertising enterprises have detailed information about my buying habits.
Their business is selling ads. They can get more $ for ads from a (for instance) Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia company that are delivered only to fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers (for obvious reasons). Instead of charging .01 per mini-banner ad that shows up on a website, they can charge .02 for the mini-banner that shows up if its guaranteed that 100% of the people who see that mini-banner have at some point clicked "Like" on the Pittsburgh Steelers Facebook page. And that's a good deal for the people buying the ads and for the people selling them and for the people who are seeing the ads as far as I can tell.
Ultimately, I'd like to see my television ads hooked up to Facebook, so that I'll never see another ad that were developed for women consumers (since I am not one) and instead see nothing but TV ads that are wall to wall "Coors Beer Bikini Girls" and "The Most Interesting Man In The World". And some commercials for donating to Democratic Party candidates, buying books at Barnes and Nobles.
And never again ads for tampons or Cialis (Cialis ads are designed specifically for women, not men, you'll notice).
But there are so many people, people who I respect, who have grave concerns about this, to the point where they talk about deleting their FB accounts, never use Goggle if you are signed into Gmail, never use Gmail for that matter since it scans your emails to produce the ads you see on the Gmail site.
What I don't get is... why so worried? What is the worst case scenario you are so concerned about? Not even the most LIKELY scenario, what's the worst case scenario you are worried about with sharing your purchasing info with ad companies like Facebook?
I know, not much of a diary since I haven't done any research and given you any information other than maybe a different point of view on a common "scare subject" but really I'm hoping to see some feedback from people around here who have these concerns, who can tell me what it is I'm missing.
I get that employers might use my Facebook to screen me for employment and suchlike. But my buying habits aren't the problem there, my POLITICS are. So to be clear, I'm not talking about the dangers of social media in general, the worries about employers holding your pro-Democratic conversations against you from your Facebook wall.
The "omg the sky is falling" stuff is always centered around Facebook selling your info to other companies, your CONSUMER info.