![]() The storage of the data means that, at some point, someone can get to it. The store's algorithms for figuring out such things had been spot on! He called the store back later to apologize-turned out his daughter was pregnant. I'm sure you heard about the report last year of a man who called Target in a rage because his 16-year-old daughter was suddenly being served up with expectant-mother ads. ![]() And it's an amount of data that, as we've seen time and time again, can quickly begin to paint a compelling picture of every customer. Most of the Internet is free what's wrong with a little tracking? Because it's not just tracking. Now let's go back to what I mentioned above. There, as with the iPhone, you'll be able both to reset your advertising ID and click on a box to "opt out of interest based ads." Here, you don't go to your Android phone settings, but your Google Settings app. The new Google "AdID" system has similar intents – and is similarly difficult to find. To trackers, you will then appear to be a new user. Right underneath that, incidentally, you'll see the "Reset Advertising Identifier." Clicking on that will zero out the anonymized identifier as relates your personal data. ![]() This will stop ad companies from tracking what you do with your phone and serving up targeted ads. You'll see a button labeled says, "Limit ad tracking." If it's not showing a green color, click the button so that it shows green. If you're an iPhone user, you need to go into Settings, then click Privacy, and then scroll all the way down to Advertising. (Details on the new Android ad tracker, incidentally, were broken by USA Today's Alistair Barr.) Removing them or resetting them takes a bit of work. Neither company goes out of its way to make this easier. That said, let's look at the new systems, and I'll tell you how to opt out. They just know a certain user associated with a certain random identifier buys cat food regularly, likes action movies, and visits a Baskin-Robbins a little too frequently – not that it's you, John W. But changing technology – and the advantage companies have over us when it comes to understanding the implications of technology – has created a situation that is both excessive and harmful.Īnd, further, we should note that the ad-tracking data the companies collect should be anonymous. Most of the Internet is free the price we pay for it is ads of one sort or another. In the realities of the world we live in, we have to accept not just advertising but creative advertising. This sounds like bad news, but the good part is that, given widespread consumer outrage on the issues, both companies have shown some spine and designed the new protocols both to keep the data anonymized and to make it easier for us to opt out from tracking. The latest one step forward deserves more notice.īoth Apple and Android have recently introduced new ways for advertisers to deliver targeted ads to us. and British intelligent agencies are working to take advantage of the extraordinary information that online social-media sites are collecting on us. Just when you start to feel you have a grasp of things, we get hit with new revelations about government spying. The battle to maintain some semblance of privacy in our online lives is a classic one-step-forward, two-steps-back situation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |