Opt-Out Not So Great

Do you remember the days when you would get random advertisements on your computer that had absolutely nothing to do with what you like? Those days are long. The Internet took a page out of television’s book. First, they began to place appropriate ads on appropriate sites, just like T.V. Consider a sports channel; likely there will be many ads about football and baseball tickets, and little about the new Cabbage Patch kids doll. The Internet then became the same way. On a guitar chat website, one would see guitar cables, amplifiers, and guitars rather than miracle-grow garden solution. They have stepped it up once again, but this time not everyone is happy.

Enter behavioral advertising. This new form of ads actually investigates your browsing history and other documents on your computer to form a keyword profile of what you like and are interested in, and then brings ads to you based on those investigations, and this is all involuntary. Privacy advocates are having fits over this, and the public are scared that their sensitive information will be compromised, and it won’t have even been their faults.

“Is it worth it” is their slogan, and they say that it isn’t worth having someone’s entire computer scanned just for more ads to be thrown at them. It also is involuntary, often an entire ISP (Internet Service Provider) signs up all of their customers for a portion of what the advertisers make. It is all about the money. That’s what these advertisers think; these tailor made ads will lure people into spending their hard earned money.

Just recently though, privacy advocates have been making some breakthroughs against the behavioral advertisers. They have actually recruited experts of the law, and have them backed into a corner. The advertisers say they will offer a opt-out policy, where people can call and “take themselves off of the list” of people to be scanned. This seems to have satisfied the public, but it is mostly a sham.

For one, the people have to call and deactivate themselves from the service, probably through a long, tedious process. Most people don’t want to put in the effort, or don’t have the time to do this stuff, and they shouldn’t have to. People shouldn’t have to ask to not have their privacy invaded, this a is ridiculous statement.

Then, the opt-out policies expire after a short time. It seems like five months is the agreed figure of consensus for these “take me off of the lists” to stay in effect. After that, you have to call again, and go through the boring process over again. Again, most people will forget about this, won’t have enough time, or will simply get too frustrated to keep doing it.

Research behavioral advertising and see its true risks. To fight back, try using an anonymous proxy’s encryption functions to really mess up the data the ads see; that will confuse them!

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