People perceive the internet to be safe, but they may not be the case. Our concept of privacy as well as the frequent usability of technology in society may be capable of situating our privacy and personal information in a dangerous situation. We rely on the Internet for virtually everything we do and are careless to the type of information we place there. Personal information such as our address, account numbers, and even social security number are necessary for our everyday use of the internet such as email, online banking and shopping. Where does the entirety of that information go that we provide to these websites? The public assumes that this information is private, however, that is not the case. Companies and marketers attack internet …show more content…
Jim Harper’s article “It's Modern Trade- Web Users Get as Much as They Give” discusses the concern of web trackers and their methods of obtaining a person’s personal information from a website online. This article brought to light a different mechanism of how our privacy can be taken from us in the form of internet cookies. Web trackers utilize these cookies to “customize” a person’s experience while on the internet, however little does the average person know that the “customized” experience comes at a price. According to Harper, “Cookies have been integral to Web browsing since the beginning, and their privacy consequences have been a subject of public discussion for over a decade” (Harper 2). The cookies that these companies use gather a great deal of information about the user, providing those companies with a vast amount of personal information while the user is in the dark. Internet cookies could be one of the leading characteristics that will denounce our freedom and privacy on the internet. It is nearly impossible to stop this crisis, even though countless users are not pleased. As a result, we should attempt to control our own personal information and cultivate a smart solution regarding our internet …show more content…
Companies manipulate these pop up ads as a way to directly promote their products that you have previously researched as well as gain a commission from that ad. In past years, this nature of advertising has developed into a more prominent technique as the internet evolves itself to be more popular and accessible. Presumably, we may not be fond of the idea of cookies commandeering our information from us, nevertheless this is how larger companies generate revenue in order to provide their websites with free access. For instance, Google, Yahoo, and MSN are major companies that play into this gimmick authorizing these ads to be present on their websites. Harper declares “Personalized advertising is more valuable than advertising just aimed at anyone” (Harper 2). That being said, marketers will invest bounteous quantities of money to reach a potential customer if you are more than likely to purchase their products or services. Who really pays the cost? Is it these massive marketing companies or the internet users they