They're Watching You

"Here's Looking at You!"

I recently logged into my Yahoo! account and noticed a Plus-size women's retail clothing ad on my page. Why is this relevant you ask? I'm not a plus-sized woman. But I DID go into a plus-sized store recently to look for clothes for my relative, who happens to be a plus-sized person.

I decided to check out what was going on with these ads, called "Ad Choices", on the little blue arrow you can click on.

Lately, I've been concerned with the fact that advertisers and other companies are following people online, exchanging their personal information and 'trading' secrets with others about what you buy, when you buy, and how much you have to buy with (your household income amount).

After reading, "The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry Is Defining Your Identity and Your Worth" by Joseph Turow, I saw something truly sinister. The fact is, you really don't have any privacy at all. The worst part is, we're constantly being judged and put into unsavory categories, based on what we do online.

Here's Proof we are being watched online:

"When you are signed-in to your Yahoo! account, Yahoo! associates your observed interests and activities with your Yahoo! account..."
http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/cookies/

Do they tell you this when you log in each time? Probably not. They certainly didn't tell me this until I looked it up.

This is the message they had for advertisers looking to advertise on Yahoo!.

"And with its industry-leading targeting tools, including Social Targeting, Yahoo! can help you reach an engaged target audience at scale within a brand-safe environment. Yahoo! is also an industry leader in protecting user data and privacy, and is considered a “most trusted” brand by consumers".
http://advertising.yahoo.com/article/yahoo-social-solutions.html

Most trusted brand by consumers? Well, it's certainly the most widely used brand besides MSN and AOL. So, which side of the playing field is Yahoo! really on? Do they really protect consumers, or are they just pretending to protect your privacy?

Here's another company, Yahoo! is partnering with to share your information. Read this and you can be the judge.

"Genome tells you who your customers are, what they are into most…"
"Our "always on" integrations with over 25 third-party data partners is exclusively augmented with Yahoo!'s proprietary search, registrations, and behavioral user data."
"…help you discover, model, optimize, and predict online audiences throughout the customer lifecycle."
http://www.genomeplatform.com

While Yahoo! promises to protect people's privacy online, it simultaneously offers businesses a way to 'target' us even as we're opting out of their ads. 

The opt-out process is so complicated that we can hardly control what they're throwing at us.

You first have to install a cookie from that site to your browser, so that other sites can 'remember' that you're blocking them. Sometimes this doesn't work with software on your computer. It is a permanent cookie that remains on your computer--after you've cleared all cookies through your browser.

Then they tell you to check back with the site each time they update it to install more permanent cookies that may or may not work.

One link I clicked on to 'opt-out' kept sending me back to the same page, to start the cycle all over again!

There's a whole slew of information on "How We Protect Your Privacy" but very little you can actually do to stop the flow of your information to other parties such as: 

Acxiom, BlueKai, Campaign Grid, Epsilon, Exelate, Experian (free credit reporting service, on of the "Big Three" (Equifax, TransUnion), IXI (a division of Equifax), Nielsen, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, Polk, ims (SDI).

The quotes from these websites were just so darn interesting, I had to print them here:

"IXI Services enables its clients to differentiate and target consumer households and target markets based on proprietary measures of wealth, income, spending capacity, credit, share-of-wallet, and share-of-market." --http://www.ixicorp.com/about/company-overview/

"Each quarter, the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey reaches out to more than 25,000 consumers in more than 50 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America to gauge their economic outlook and confidence in the job market, status of their personal finances and readiness to spend." --http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/measurement/global-consumer-confidence.html

"We [Nielsen Catalina Solutions] [integrate] Nielsen’s industry-leading media and household purchasing information with frequent shopper data from over 60 million households, a subset of Catalina’s 90 million+ household data warehouse. Our holistic "end to end" offerings guide marketers and media companies in reaching the most valuable prospects and audiences on television, online, mobile, CRM and print." --http://ncsolutions.com

 "Based on credible, third-party data, Polk's lead conversion reporting shows Autobytel and its dealer and OEM clients:

• The number of leads that convert to sales and the lead source.

• Solid data on consumer cross-shopping behaviors.

• Insights into new-to-used shopping patterns.

• Lost sales and conquesting opportunities."

-https://www.polk.com/knowledge/case_studies/how_autobytel_leads_the_way_in_proving_the_value_of_its_internet_leads

"SDI provides business solutions that track patient behaviors on a de-identified basis across all aspects of their experience. Through our unique and proprietary patient- linking technology, we connect all aspects of a patient’s behavior and provide more actionable analysis compared to those that simply focus on one part of the patient experience." --http://www.sdihealth.com 

Note: SDI tracks medical information about patients, even in compliance with HIPAA standards (Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

Yahoo! tells this to people looking to protect their personal information:

"Yahoo! may append information about you that is publicly available or information that is aggregated and/or anonymized by trusted partners. This information may include, for example, average household size or postal code. Yahoo! may also append other demographic information about you such as household income range and general location. This information may be associated with personally identifiable information such as email address, name and physical address."http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/appenddata/

This is truly disturbing! Credit Ratings are especially important now because you need a good credit rating in order to get a job. Imagine what these businesses are saying about you online, based on your web-browing history and habits. 

I don't want to be constantly targeted by anyone, period! The fact that these companies and corporations know where I live, where I shop, where I go and what money I have, is a total breach of privacy. 

This is not information I willingly shared to be exploited for their monetary gain!

Think about what you do online and how you're being targeted. What ads do you see online? Why do you see them? Do you think it's labeling you and putting you in a 'bucket'? Go to the ad source and find out for yourself.

When it comes to personal information, it should be kept private. Imagine what your future boss will think based on the information they get from Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. on how you look as an employee. Now factor in what companies are saying about you based on a perceived 'buying trend'--does it mean you have good credit or bad credit? You may be surprised at what you find.

I'll be covering these issues in the future along with my review of the book "The Daily You" by Joseph Turow.

(You might want to clear your browser after reading this! If you can…)