There has been a lot of talk about privacy on the internet lately, with google changing its policies. How much do companies know about us? or how much should they know about us?.
There was a story in the US recently where Target sent a teenage girl some literature on products that would help her during her pregnancy and when her baby was born. The girls father was outraged, and confronted the local Target manager, who was clueless as well. The family was issued an apology, however soon after, the father had to give his own apology when the girl revealed that she was actually pregnant. How did Target know before the father did?
Its all part of the connected world we live in and "tracking". In this case target has managed to develop a very successful program that keeps track of shoppers purchases, it can determine that if a shopper is buying a certain range of products in succession, that the shopper is pregnant and can even accurately predict how far along she is by what products she is buying.
It is very rare now, that we do something in this world that no one knows about. Target keeps track of you through information gathered electronically of your card used during the sale, but how do people keep track of you online?, why is it you get adds delivered on pages you visit that seem to be about things you like?.
There are little pieces of code called "cookies" that are placed on your hard drive when you visit websites on the internet. These bits of code are not programs, they can not take over your computer, as rumoured, they are usually a few lines of code that are a unique identifier for your computer and that website.
The cookie will let the page know that you have been there before, or that you logged in on the previous page, it might let an advertiser know that you clicked on their add, so the owner of the page can be paid for hosting the add. Some companies will gather information from the cookies to get an idea of what pages you click on, that way they know what sort of things you are interested in and can display advertising that is appropriate.
Cookies must not be confused with viruses or malware that can be loaded by clicking on pictures or adds, they are different types of scripts.
It is very debatable whether these people have the right to track you on the internet, and a lot of people don't like it. The thing to keep in mind is that these people don't know that it is "John Smith from 15 internet st Google heights" that visited that page, like Target did, all they know it that computer AB19051 at ip address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx visited the site.
Contrary to movies and tv, it is extremely difficult to find out who someone is by their ip address (ip address is like your internet telephone number).
In summary, you need to remember that on the internet you get a whole lot of value for free, but nothing is for free, someone has to pay for it - hence the advertising, and advertising relies on cookies. Cookies are easy to disable, but if disabled they also stop features on websites from working properly.
If you are really concerned about who knows what you are doing on the internet, then be concerned about your internet provider, they know every where you have been and usually need to keep a record of it for an amount of time.
There was a story in the US recently where Target sent a teenage girl some literature on products that would help her during her pregnancy and when her baby was born. The girls father was outraged, and confronted the local Target manager, who was clueless as well. The family was issued an apology, however soon after, the father had to give his own apology when the girl revealed that she was actually pregnant. How did Target know before the father did?
Its all part of the connected world we live in and "tracking". In this case target has managed to develop a very successful program that keeps track of shoppers purchases, it can determine that if a shopper is buying a certain range of products in succession, that the shopper is pregnant and can even accurately predict how far along she is by what products she is buying.
It is very rare now, that we do something in this world that no one knows about. Target keeps track of you through information gathered electronically of your card used during the sale, but how do people keep track of you online?, why is it you get adds delivered on pages you visit that seem to be about things you like?.
There are little pieces of code called "cookies" that are placed on your hard drive when you visit websites on the internet. These bits of code are not programs, they can not take over your computer, as rumoured, they are usually a few lines of code that are a unique identifier for your computer and that website.
The cookie will let the page know that you have been there before, or that you logged in on the previous page, it might let an advertiser know that you clicked on their add, so the owner of the page can be paid for hosting the add. Some companies will gather information from the cookies to get an idea of what pages you click on, that way they know what sort of things you are interested in and can display advertising that is appropriate.
Cookies must not be confused with viruses or malware that can be loaded by clicking on pictures or adds, they are different types of scripts.
It is very debatable whether these people have the right to track you on the internet, and a lot of people don't like it. The thing to keep in mind is that these people don't know that it is "John Smith from 15 internet st Google heights" that visited that page, like Target did, all they know it that computer AB19051 at ip address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx visited the site.
Contrary to movies and tv, it is extremely difficult to find out who someone is by their ip address (ip address is like your internet telephone number).
In summary, you need to remember that on the internet you get a whole lot of value for free, but nothing is for free, someone has to pay for it - hence the advertising, and advertising relies on cookies. Cookies are easy to disable, but if disabled they also stop features on websites from working properly.
If you are really concerned about who knows what you are doing on the internet, then be concerned about your internet provider, they know every where you have been and usually need to keep a record of it for an amount of time.
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