Technoglitch
Core Member
On April 2, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook is in hot water with government regulators in six European countries over its practice of tracking users’ movements across the web to sell targeted advertising. The kerfuffle illustrates the bind that the world finds itself in over tracking — the collection and sharing of data on users’ browsing habits to help sites offer personalized content such as ads or recommendations.
On one hand, tracking has become a backbone of the Internet’s advertising ecosystem and is understood by most Internet users to be a necessary evil in exchange for a richer, more convenient online experience. (Do people really want to fill out purchasing forms on Amazon.com every time they order a book?)
On the other hand, cookies and other tracking mechanisms continue to raise hot-button issues about privacy as companies get ever-more creative and aggressive in their tactics and find ways to defeat a growing raft of anti-tracking technologies.
But is anyone really surprised that Facebook is resourceful in its tracking practices? Is it really so shocking that Facebook may be combining information from Instagram, WhatsApp and other services to target ads toward its users, and uses its “like” button to track browsing activity?
Doesn’t everybody know that collecting information about users is at the core of the business model for Facebook (and other big players like Google and Twitter)? Hey, we get served targeted ads but can reconnect with an old friend or post a photo of dinner free of charge. That’s the deal, right?
Several browser extensions and other software tools promote themselves as protecting online privacy, but sites have a way of implementing ways to outsmart them and these tools may not always be trustworthy themselves.
Internet Privacy Is The Wrong Conversation | TechCrunch
On one hand, tracking has become a backbone of the Internet’s advertising ecosystem and is understood by most Internet users to be a necessary evil in exchange for a richer, more convenient online experience. (Do people really want to fill out purchasing forms on Amazon.com every time they order a book?)
On the other hand, cookies and other tracking mechanisms continue to raise hot-button issues about privacy as companies get ever-more creative and aggressive in their tactics and find ways to defeat a growing raft of anti-tracking technologies.
But is anyone really surprised that Facebook is resourceful in its tracking practices? Is it really so shocking that Facebook may be combining information from Instagram, WhatsApp and other services to target ads toward its users, and uses its “like” button to track browsing activity?
Doesn’t everybody know that collecting information about users is at the core of the business model for Facebook (and other big players like Google and Twitter)? Hey, we get served targeted ads but can reconnect with an old friend or post a photo of dinner free of charge. That’s the deal, right?
Several browser extensions and other software tools promote themselves as protecting online privacy, but sites have a way of implementing ways to outsmart them and these tools may not always be trustworthy themselves.
Internet Privacy Is The Wrong Conversation | TechCrunch
