Interestingly, as I was checking out Flickr Color Pickr, I noticed an ad running across the top of the page that clearly relates to something I've been shopping for and discussing online with friends. In fact, this particular and unique ad has been pursuing me around the web and into my personal email account for weeks. I'm a little disturbed by the sense of being followed, of being aware that my internet paths are dogged by electronic marketing bloodhounds.
The trailing ad could be attributable to cookies, which I don't hate in principal. Cookies can be misused as spyware, but can also add convenience--for example,their capacity to store data allows Amazon to recognize us each time we enter, saving a considerable amount of time for those all too-frequent purchases. But the ubiquitous ad could be the result of contextual advertising, which I find slightly more intrusive. A while ago I read Planet Google by Randall Stross. In one chapter, he explains how semantic analysis software is utilized to analyze text and develop keywords; when attached to an ad database, the software matches the keywords with advertisements. This contextual targeting is at the heart of Google's AdSense, which website owners can employ to automatically analyze their site's text and select germane ads for display on the right side of the page. But the advertising code can also be connected to email programs, scanning the contents of each email message in order to attach relevant ads.
Email accounts are always routinely scanned for viruses anyway, by big impersonal software--no one is sitting around, snickering over mistakes or personal contents and passing around particularly interesting emails. And something else to consider is whether privacy is an over-rated luxury, if encroaching on it allows us to revel in virtual cocoons of our personal information needs. Our online worlds will become cosier places where even the ads cater to our interests and enthusiasms. But on several levels, I do find the decline in privacy to be invasive and vaguely threatening.
It's all something to think about as I create growing numbers of accounts in my quest for the 23 Things, vastly increasing my traceable cyber presence. In exchange for more information and entertainment, I'm becoming more of a known quantity to marketers--and who else?
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