Behavioral Tracking Essay

Behavioral tracking presents an ethical dilemma due to the issue of privacy which every user needs. Many web users do not want other people to know their current location or browsing history, although for companies, such information translates into profits and marketing efficiency. The dilemma involves the question of whether to accord users their privacy or to track them and benefit from their actions on the web. Therefore, behavioral tracking amounts to invasion of privacy, discrimination, as well as exploitation of vulnerable consumers. From a person’s browsing activities, it is easier to gather their details, such as marital status, zip code, gender, and age, which they would want to remain private but could be sold to by the websites to

Other individuals who are opposed to behavioral tracking include users who value privacy and do not drowned in ads.

Behavioral tracking is essential for businesses as it enables targeted advertising thus ensure revenue to companies. Further, it makes it easy for a company to predict the reaction of people towards advertisements thereby gauging the effectiveness of such ads in pushing a commodity to consumers. Businesses, such as online publishers easily target clients using behavioral tracking depending on the number of times users click on an advertisement, which increases traffic as well as the number of hits. Retailers can easily find their target consumers

People, on the other hand, benefit from behavioral tracking by saving time when searching for information on the internet. By just typing a command or the name of a commodity on Google or any other search engine, it is easier to get information depending on previous searches, which saves time and effort. Further, people, just like businesses would benefit from personal data