BFB :: Before #FaceBook

Posted by Brandon Pierce on January 24, 2011 in Analytics, Politics, Social Media, Technology | ∞

If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably somewhat active on the internet. So the privacy concerns our Congress are discussing are very relevant to you.

The “‘Do Not Track‘ legislation is designed to protect online consumers from companies tracing their digital footprints on the Web…”
[the LATimes Blog]

Privacy concerns affect us all. Many people may have been worried because of that backyard porn they downloaded last week. But I’m not talking about them so much as the rest of us. I mean the college student ordering her textbooks online, or the single dad that needs to buy tampons for his teenage daughter – it’s cheapest to order them in bulk and saves him the awkward aisle 7 moment.. I mean regular people.

Facebook apps by default are set to track their users. If you leave are logged-in to Facebook in an open tab on your browser while you surf the other open tabs, Facebook and Facebook apps are tracking you.

From an advertiser’s perspective this is badass.
This means all sorts of great correlated data on our customers. On our potential customers. On our potential customer’s family and friends… On their family and friends.

It’s not 1984 now, it’s friggin Shadowrun!

Well Shadowrun without all the orcs and magic. It’s the Shadowrun world wherein MegaCorps rule, possessing more power than nation-states. Walmart, McDonalds, Blackwater, Subway… Apple. Microsoft. Amazon.com. On and on. Our world is populated by these cornucopia of new mega-breeds in “corporation”.

“Popular children’s websites install more tracking technologies on personal computers than do the top websites aimed at adults.” Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), as read from the Wall Street Journal articles on online privacy.

“For many kids today, the Internet is like online oxygen – they can’t live without it. The Internet presents access to incredible opportunities to learn and communicate that were unimaginable only a few years ago. But kids growing up in this online environment also need protection from dangers that can lurk in cyberspace. Children should be playing ‘Hide and Seek’ not ‘Hide from the Creep.’ That’s why to ensure that kids are protected, I plan to introduce legislation next year that will include a ‘Do Not Track’ requirement so that kids do not have their online behavior tracked or their personal information collected or profiled. I look forward to working with my colleagues to move this legislation forward.” Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) – from the Opening Statement at “Do Not Track” Hearing

I wonder how much Facebook makes off tracking me annually.

What is a reasonable amount of tracking?
Should the websites you visit be tracking you at all?

... other posts by Brandon Pierce

Tags: Facebook, law, politics, privacy, Shadowrun, tracking, web analytics

http://johnlusher.com John Lusher

Great post about privacy and what we face now versus how privacy was before. Isn’t it amazing that we are talking about “before Facebook” as if it’s always been here? Personally, I see a reasonable amount of tracking being okay, but not tracking every visit I make to every single site! Do I think the government should get involved? Absolutely NOT! I believe we can police this ourselves if we pressure companies and websites to limit or eliminate the tracking they do! How is this done? That I cannot answer, but it is possible!
http://experiencefarm.com Brandon Pierce

John – thanks for commenting!

It’s an arms race of the user versus the websites. The browsers are our first line of defense. Chrome and Firefox both announced recently they would be adding in “Do Not Track” technology into their browsers.

See reference on Do Not Track in browsers:
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox tools block Web tracking from advertisers – http://ow.ly/3Jllf by @LATimes

The legal side will be less an issue as the browsers simple dis-allow the tracking technology. Remember Pop-Up ads and the malicious ways those could infect our computers? Pop-up ads didn’t need to become illegal for users to avoid them.

As an advertiser I want to have some tracking. As a user, NO WAY!
http://www.sendoutcards.com/86106 Suzanne Ashley

Thank you for this post and thanks to @John for sharing it.
Unlike most women, I find shopping to be an absolute chore, therefore I order as much as I can online. This saves me time, energy, and my sanity, and I believe it’s greener.

I understand why companies are tracking the young audience; it’s their target market. If I had a dollar for every time my eight year told me about a product and how it would save me money, my coffee bar time each week would be free.
@Brandon, thanks for letting us know that browsers are addressing this. Like John, this is a more acceptable way of handling the situation to me than having the government step in. The government has become way too big, and I believe most folks can be grown-ups and take care of matters themselves.
http://experiencefarm.com Brandon Pierce

@Suzanne -

If government does not step in, the right to privacy will become an arms race between users and the tracking technologies.

Online privacy means more to our lives now. Perhaps most importantly our money is tied up in computers. Each bank account is a set of binary data storing a banker’s tallies.

Privacy as protection.

Another aspect of arms races is they usually make better and better technologies the longer the race lasts. Just look at the multitude of advancements from the USSR versus USA space race.

Allowing the race to continue is like conditioning a body against pathogens. If a person is under exposed to viruses, he will have less resistance to disease as he grows older.

Unsurprisingly, our technologies posses so many characteristics in common with ecosystems and life in general. Embracing that aspect has yielded interesting results.

Genetic algorithms are used in the generation of artificial intelligence. That same sort of AI is often used in video games to manage the behaviors of non-player characters like zombies, invading aliens, or bad guys.

more info on “genetic algorithms” :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm
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