A company has sent an advertisement based on baby bottles to a 15 year old girl and this was a week before she told her parents that she was pregnant. It was possible for the company to figure out that she was going to have a baby beforehand due to the record of items she had bought online.
This is an example of how the online media keeps a record of every single click you make online. Such data is used for corporate groups to promote their products more efficiently. They may know who you are and what you do not by looking at your profile, but the movements you make online. The unfortunate fact is that you will never have control over this information.
Not many are aware of this situation, yet Jennifer Goldbeck’s main aim is for users to take back their control over the information they input in websites.
The most useful way companies learn about their users on social networking websites is through the theory of homophile. This is defined as the ones nearby you having the similar attributes and hobbies as you. A homophile would guess that the friends of a smart and young being would have nearly the same characteristics. Thus, if a smart man creates a page on curly fries via Facebook, it is most likely that the friends who have liked the page will be smart as well. If this theory is correct, the page would end up having a host of smart people. It is not the content that makes you smart, but the act of liking the page that proves homophile accurate.
The problem is the information companies collect are not under the permission from the users. There are luckily three ways that can help these companies realize that users must be the customers, not a form of resource they can abuse. There is a political law route, which is going through all the political process and action to earn the right of using the users information, but this would be extremely time consuming. The other way is the bann any profit-seeking companies, meaning that no one would be able to access your information. This is beneficial to the users, but companies would no longer have a way to create statistics needed for efficient marketing. Nonetheless, the third and most efficient way is to aware users about how they would use their SNS. Liking and sharing certain pages may unconsciously expose their identity and personal information.
Companies would want to collect as vague information as possible, but if users do not want their information to be used in any form of way, then companies must respect their users belief. It is about time to give them not only the rights they need but also an advanced technology needed in the online world.
Jennifer Goldbecks overall reason with giving the users rights online in reasonable, but there can be so many conflict with the companies. The only reason why they collect information is purely because of improvement, not for any hacking or deceivement. It will prevent any abuse online, such as threats of inappropriate content. There will not be enough statistics if users don’t be honest online and begin to unlike certain things. These companies alas do not share any of the information they collect to the public, but only use it for the customer’s good. According to politics, users must be over the age of 13 in order to access any social networking website because it is believed for them to be responsible and aware of the information companies collect.
Users are who create the face and attributes of a social networking website. There are only a few rules and limitations they must keep online, which is relatively nothing compared to what companies must do in order to keep your information safe. Therefore, if users are freely allowed to post, like or share anything, then companies must at least have a minor proportion of information they collect.
Such problem requires careful thought and discussion.
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