What is “snooping” and how are companies doing it? Imagine walking in a store or logging into a website and getting bombarded with questions about your personal information. Companies all around the world ask their customers so many personal things so that they can “snoop.” Snooping is to investigate or look around furtively in an attempt to find out something, especially information about someone's private affairs.By “snooping” the company's target certain people and use their website as one of the tools. Companies all around the world are “snooping” by getting certain customers to shop, designing their website accordingly, and asking personal information from shoppers for rewards rewards programs so they can snoop. Companies do many things …show more content…
They also use a deal called “Rewards Program” or even “Loyal Customer.” The company's use this to get all of the personal information from a customer which leads to the “snooping” part of it. When a customer signs up for a rewards card the company asks for their birthday, phone number, email, address, and other personal information. With them asking this it allows them to send you mail and emails such as coupons and deals in stores and online. They also use this because when someone lets out their personal information they allow more than just mail to be sent. The person allows for them to know what they have searched, viewed, and sometimes even talked about if they are logged into that email while doing so. In the article it talks about the store target ands states that “Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy, or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal, or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving, and the number of cars you own.” (135) With that being said customers do not truly realize how much information they are sharing when they sign up for rewards programs, become a loyal customer, or even walk into a store such as
Did you know that almost everything you do on the internet is being tracked and recorded in some way? In the Article, George Orwell… Meet Mark Zuckerberg, by Lori Andrews, Andrews talks about how behavioral advertising, which is the tracking of consumer’s online activities in order to bring custom-made advertisements, is a topic that is concealed to many people and can cause damage. Search engines like Google store the searches you have made and in 2006 there were search logs released which had personal information that people were judged by (Andrews 716-717). Data aggregation is the main way Facebook makes its money. Andrews believes that it’s an invasion of privacy and is not known well enough by the public. This article is aimed at young and new internet users that are ignorant of the possible dangers on the web. Lori Andrews is successful at informing novice users about the dangers of behavioral
In December 2013, Target was attacked by a cyber-attack due to a data breach. Target is a widely known retailer that has millions of consumers flocking every day to the retailer to partake in the stores wonders. The Target Data Breach is now known as the largest data breach/attack surpassing the TJX data breach in 2007. “The second-biggest attack struck TJX Companies, the parent company of TJMaxx and Marshall’s, which said in 2007 that about 45 million credit cards and debit cards had been compromised.” (Timberg, Yang, & Tsukayama, 2013) The data breach occurred to Target was a strong swift kick to the guts to not only the retailer/corporation, but to employees and consumers. The December 2013 data breach, exposed Target in a way that many would not expect to see and happen to any major retailer/corporation.
By carefully examining purchasing habits of twenty-five products, Target is able to determine the likelihood that a woman is pregnant and when her baby is due. This gives them the first opportunity to market to the expectant mother instead of waiting on birth information that is available through public records like companies used to have to do. They can then carefully time coupons and offers around key dates that items might be needed.
..., websites and online marketers do find ways around users’ precautions to gain personal information. There are many people out there who want to use personal information like credit card numbers or addresses to cause harm to others. These cases are the extremely negative ones that people want to and should avoid. The case of companies and third parties tracking browsing history and other information for advertising purposes hover over a finer line between good and bad. For some people, tracking can be considered convenient in terms of shopping for what they are interested in, and others may be uncomfortable with the thought of being tracked without knowing. As stated in the beginning, complete privacy is unlikely, but being informed about the tactics of the Internet can help one protect themselves and others in their care to be as careful and private as possible.
As a result, the customer will most likely come back to the store they are already familiar with. To this extent, the retailers can also send out gift cards, reward cards to customers rewarding them for loyalty to the store. Some people think it is manipulating people into buying goods, but it is not true. The customer always has to choose whether to buy or not. No one is forcing them to buy anything.
To snitch or not to snitch? Truly there is no greater question when it comes to reducing the increasingly high crime rates within our black neighborhoods. In Alexandra Natapoff’s article “Bait and Snitch”, she argues how very detrimental snitching is on the individual and the community as a whole. Whereas, in Bill Maxwell’s article “Start Snitching” he argues that snitching would increase both safety and security of our “noire” communities. While both authors agree that something must be done to decrease the rising crime rates within our predominately “blanc” communities, however their opinions are in stark contrast to the issue of snitching.
Snitching, does it really work for Americans? Some people believe that snitching can work to improve the quality of life in some communities. While others believe that snitching will tear families apart. Bill Maxwell writer of “Start Snitching” has a view that low-income neighborhoods can benefit if more people started snitching. On the other hand Alexandra Natapoff writer of “Bait and Snitch: The High Cost Of Snitching For Law Enforcement,” opinion is that law enforcement needs to change the way they handle snitches. Both Maxwell and Natapoff have views that can change the way we look at snitching.
As we move through a typical day, this information is collected in thousands of ways. Charles Duhigg’s article “How Companies Learn Your Secrets” describes the collection, purchase, storage, and use of our personal information by the major retailer, Target. We all should know that we have agreed to the storage and sharing of our personal spending habits. The policies are disclosed in the Privacy Agreement of the stores shopper’s card, which most of us have.
Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, like many Web sites, we use "cookies," and we obtain certain types of information when your Web browser accesses Amazon.com. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see examples of the information we receive. A number of companies offer utilities designed to help you visit Web sites anonymously. Although we will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience at Amazon.com if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these tools exist.
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke said. When using the web, web users’ information tends to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that require companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advice on social media about how web users can be more cautious about what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining, and also by attacking this problem by offering classes for the youth on the internet. Weblining tracks a web user’s information when using the internet, the information that is taken is then used to try to sell items to the user. Carr informs readers on how weblining works: “Already, advertisers are able to infer extremely personal details about people by monitoring their web-browsing habits.
The Internet offers many benefits but it also creates many threats that undermines our personal privacy. Concerns about loss of privacy are not new. But the computer's ability to gather and sort vast amounts of data and the Internet's ability to distribute it globally magnify those concerns [1]. Privacy concerns on the Internet are centered on improper acquisition, improper use of personal information such as intrusions, manipulation, discrimination, identity theft, and stalking of personal information. Today the Internet stretches our geographic boundaries and force us to deal with global ethic based on moral principles held to be valid across the cultures. Due to the nature of the Internet, our personal information may be transmitted over the internet and that the transfer of personal information may be made to any country in the world, regardless of the extent of any data protection laws and regulations in any of those countries.
Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users. As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast. E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior. The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens. Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage. In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites. However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.
In paragraph three of “Store's spy on customers by tracking cell phones,” Paula Ebben states “Stores say this type of Wi-Fi tracking is anonymous and it gives retailers important information that ultimately helps Customers, Like knowing when to put more cashiers at the registers or sales associates on a floor.” For example, if the workers look at the tracker and see 100 people all waiting to check out they can go send more people to fill up every register so the shoppers can leave faster and get a overall better experience. In paragraph 12 of “how and why retail stores are spying on you” The author says “If you check prices from other stores online while shopping somewhere else you can get a message from the store your at saying that they will match the price that the other store offered” For example if your shopping at Walmart and you check Target.com and something is $3 cheaper at target Walmart may send you a message saying they will sell it to you at the same price target would. That just makes everything way more convenient instead of driving store to store just to find low
Privacy is the condition where someone personal information can not be documented and be used by others (Parent, 1983). Privacy has been and continues to be a significant issue of concern for both current and prospective electronic commerce customers. The foll...