iSpies

Companies seem to be "creeping" on everyone online to see how they can sell their products. They're watching what we look at online, such as the websites we're on, the things we sign up for and the videos/pictures we look up online to see what's popular. By doing this, they can get all your information and e-mail as well. They can then spam you with loads of things pertaining to selling their products to you. Programs like this could be used to do things like take credit card numbers or account numbers at a bank probably, which could cause some major problems in the world of the regular person. If someone wants to screw you over they easily could and in the end take all of your money or identity. I don't like the idea of companies using this at all.

The article discussed a girl, Ashley Hayes-Beaty who was being monitored by Lotame Solutions. They used invisible software to track where Ashley went on the web. They found out what her favorite movies. I feel like this scares me! I am worried that they will get all my personal information when I'm filling out forms to join new websites. I don't think anyone should be seeing what I'm doing. Not that I'm doing anything bad! But still, I would feel violated.

btw I always get this feeling someone is watching me through my laptop webcam....

“Who Knows How Far We’d Take It?”

Marketing has expanded far beyond television advertisements and promotional flyers sent out with the Sunday paper. With the advancements of technology and the Internet, information can be gathered for marketing techniques without people even realizing it is happening. A "target" market has become a major concern for companies; by using information that is gathered from the Internet, companies can advertise specific products that would interest a select group based on criteria. Companies then do not have to waste time marketing to people who would probably have no interest in the product. This is where Media6Degrees comes in.

Media6Degrees is a company that works to help other companies gain information on consumers through their Internet use. The "About" section of this company describes how their company works: "Powered by social media, we outperform all of the old methods by building custom audiences using brand loyalists and their strongest online connections. Focusing on individuals allows us to reach the consumers most receptive to your brand message through ads delivered both inside and outside of social media sites". Media6Degrees and companies similar to it are becoming more and more popular among companies that wish to expand their business through target markets.

However, consumers may not realize that what they type on the Internet could be used to build a personal profile, which can be used by companies to promote their products. Consider what Media6Degrees has stated: "Who knows how far we'd take it". It is important to remember to be safe when posting things on the Internet.

iSpies: Banks are in on it too?!

I need something clarified, the article mentions that a company (Media6degrees) is working on technology to allow banks to assess their customers on their social-networking. What’s the deal with that? So is it some kind of massive online data space of matching people up with their credit on the banks data base? If I’m friends with someone with poor credit and the bank won’t let me get a loan for that, is that legal? I think if this is the case, this technology has gone far beyond invasive, borderline information trafficking. If anyone can dig up any information on this I would appreciate it, cause you guys know me. If I can get someone to do it for me, why bother?

iSpies: Watch where you click, Your online moves are being tracked and traded

I feel as though it is an invasion of privacy. The fact that there are all of these different companies that can track everything we do is a little creepy. They track what you do in so much detail that they can pretty much tell who you are. When you are surfing the web you do it in the convenience of your own home most of the time thinking that it is your own personal business. Since they can track everything you are doing can they track your credit card purchases online? What’s to say there won’t be high identity thefts with these companies. There could be that one person who would do it. These are things we need to think of when we are purchasing from the web. Who is really getting our information?

iSpies: The Secrets of SnazzySpace

After reading an article called The iSpies written by Julia Angwin, I decided to research further into the topic, so I read another article called Snazzyspace.com: the Kids’ Site With the Most Tracking Files written by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries. What a parent may believe to be a safe site for their kid or teen is actually invaded by monsters ready to lash out at their children instead. There was a test computer that went on this site, and it picked up 248 tracking tools there. This site picked up more tracking tools than the runner up site, Playlist.com, which had 49 less tracking tools. SnazzySpace was found to have 3 flash cookies, 195 cookies, and 46 beacons embedded in it. Cookies are little stored inside a user’s computer which allows companies to track the user across various sites, flash cookies use Adobe’s Flash program in order to record information from another computer, and beacons are invisible pieces of software which are capable of tracking users and gathering information on what they are doing. This is a huge invasion of privacy and peace of mind. Just glancing at SnazzySpace will show you flashing and glowing colors decorating images…as well as tons of ads all over the site as well. A representative of SnazzySpace explained that the site works with multiple ad networks which could place several tracking tools on the site. He also commented that, “While there may be a lot of cookies I don’t think ALL of them are the ‘tracking’ type.” The digital marketing firm Epic Media Group Inc was found to be the company with the most cookies and beacons on SnazzySpace. Epic Media Group Inc uses beacons to ensure that they’re ads appear on the appropriate websites, for payment-tracking reasons, says the president of Epic’s online intelligence division E. J. Hilbert. He claims that Epic does not track users from site to site, but instead uses cookies to which sites and ads draw the most attention. 18 cookies were found to be from Google’s ad services AdSense and DoubleClick, but some were also from Google’s site analytic service and for YouTube videos. A Google representative claimed he could not comment SnazzySpace specifically, but that advertisers and publishers control the cookies they use for analytics and ads. He said that users can just set their browser to block cookies. Domain records indicates that SnazzySpace.com was registered in Queensland, Australia by Joshua Scutts in 2006. Mr. Scutts registered other sites as well, such as iwantlayouts.com. On those registered sites a telephone number had been listed belonging to Technical Simplicity Pty Ltd, which is an Australian company that offers web and logo design. Joshua Scutts was listed as the founder on a hidden page on their website. A phone call made to Technical Simplicity Pty Ltd was not returned. The representative of SnazzySpace.com described the site as a “hobby” and would not disclose the site’s revenue. During February on Facebook, a user identifying himself as Joshu Scutts expressed his dwindling interest in personalizing social networking services, stating; “People just spam their facebook status which in turn updates their twitter. No one uses it for backgrounds, or anything. :(“

The iSpies

This morning I read an article called "The iSpies" in the Wall Street Journal. I found it very interesting how someone can watch everything you type or view online. The article talked about how a 26-year old female, named Ashley Hayes-Beaty, is being monitored by Lotame Solutions. They use a software called Beacon which is an invisible software on many websites that can track Web surfers’ location and activities online. I don't think this should be illegal because it is an invasion of privacy. The people viewing it can potentially steal your identity. I wouldn't appreciate someone seeing everything I was doing online. I think many people should read this article so they can be aware of what could be happening.

The iSpies

After reading the article, The iSpies by Julia Angwin, I don't think it's right that people have the chance to be spying on everyone. I think it's a good idea for small businesses because they can what people are doing/searching on the internet but, I don't think that it's a good idea for just anybody. Like the lady they talked about in the article Ms. Hayes-Beaty, who is being monitered by Lotame Solutions, a company that uses sophisticated software called a “beacon” to capture what people are typing on a website. They were able to find out personal information about her like for example two of her favorite movies are “The Princess Bride” and “50 First Dates. I can only imagine what other information they are finding out about people.

The iSpies: Watching Everything You Do

Well I'm not a big city lawyer, but this sounds illegal. These corporations are software to download invisible files to your computer and then have them spy on you. In my opinion this should be seen as just another form of spy ware available to criminals. While it's on your computer it sits around quietly tracking and recording what you do, how long you spend there, and how long you spend there. Some versions are even designed to track your spending habits and then use this information to estimate your income. This information is no one's business but your own. After they have recorded your information and stalked you to they're content they will then compile a profile on you and sell it off to any company that might want to spam you with their product advertisements. It's not like they're even paying much to learn about you either. They pay about 1/10 of a penny to learn everything they ever wanted to about you. For all we know these files could easily be modified to steal things like your credit card numbers or spy on you if you do your online banking. All it takes is one evil genius employee...

iSpies- The Wall Street Journal

The real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.

-Anon., U. S. Privacy Study Commission, 1977

We live in a digital age where it is easier than ever to stay connected with your friends and the world as a whole. Most people use this for good or harmless things; talking with friends, buying online, etc. The problem is that this connection can be used harmfully. Companies are now tracking what you do online and store that information. The worst part, though, is that they are selling the information. They sell this information in bulk at outrageously low prices (less than a penny a person) to whoever wants to buy it. The buyers then study this information to try to figure out what exactly people are looking up and are interested in. They then use this to figure out who to target with what ads. Now, if this was the only use of this technology it wouldn't be so bad. If I have to see ads I would at least like to see them for things I actually like or would be interested in buying. The problem I have with this practice is that this information can be used for anything. This is a bunch of companies spying on you and seeing everything you do online. While the internet age has brought a lot of incredible advances to everyday life it has also brought many dangers. One of the main ones is loss of privacy. We have been told that we need to be careful about what exactly we put online as whatever we put is there forever for anyone to see. If that is true and we need to always be careful of our privacy while online, then why is it okay for these companies to be tracking us like wild game and monitoring our every move? This is something that can be used for good but could just as easily be used for evil. I don't like taking that chance.

iSpies

After finishing this article I guess I wouldn't agree with anyone having the chance to spy on others. Some businesses and companies I thin should have the right but to sell it to others without a contract isn't a good idea. What about creeps just checking up on others. What other bad things could come from this? I must admit if I worked for a company that was doing this I think I would be interested in it.

The Wall Street Journal

I just finished reading the iSpies article by Julia Angwin from The Wall Street Journal, This article is really surprising and quit disappointing. I think that for some companies it’s understandable to track and watch what people are typing in or searching but to the extent of actually collecting information and selling it to anyone with no legal law attached to what they are doing with this information is extremely scary. I know that the internet is not safe but knowing this is a little bit uncomfortable. No one knows if they are even being tracked or not. Like the girl they talked about named Ms. Hayes-Beaty, who was being monitored by Lotame Solutions, which is a company that tracks what’s being typed and searched into someone’s computer. They even knew personal information about her such as a couple of her favorite movies. God only knows how much information companies are really getting from this. There’s over a dozen of companies out there now a days that are collecting this type of information from computers around the world.

The iSpies

This morning I had read an article in the Wall Street Journal called The iSpies. This article was written by Julia Angwin and in this article she had talked about how the tracking of consumers is really more widespread and more intrusive than more people realize. A 26 year old female named Ashley Hayes-Beaty’s is being monitored by Lotame Solutions. Lotame Solutions is a company that uses sophisticated software called a “beacon” to capture what people are typing onto the internet. Lotame is able to package up all of the information they find from monitoring people around the world and put them into anonymous profiles. These anonymous profiles are then sold to marketers and they say that spying on web users has become one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet. Last year consumer tracking had racked up to $23 billion in ad spending last year. Before they had found new technology monitoring used to be limited to mainly “cookie” files that record websites people visit. But these new tools are able to instantly assess location, income, shopping interests and even some medical conditions. All of the information that companies find are anonymous and all of the internet users are identified only by a number assigned to their computer. I personally don’t like what these types of companies are doing because how am I supposed to be able to go on my Internet without someone going into my business or even selling my business. How would I know if someone is tracking my computer? Do these companies really make a lot of money off of selling other peoples information? I don’t get why they just can’t track their own computers instead of everyone around the world.

iSpies

The article I just read is called iSpies by Julia Angwin. It talks about spying on peoples computers to see what websites the go on to a day to day basis. They focus on one person in the article named Ashley Hayes- Beaty. They state in the article that they can read all her personal information because of a personal file that no one knows about. They watch everything she does and they know almost everything about her. Ashley is being monitored by the Lotame Soulitons Company. They are a company that uses sophisticated software called a “beacon” to capture what people are typing on the website. I don’t think this is the right thing to be doing because what people do on the internet is there business and they shouldn’t have to be watched on every single move they make because they do have the right to privacy.

Computer Spies

Wow. There are so many things wrong with what I just read in the article “The iSpies” by Julia Angwin from The Wall Street Journal. For one people are using computers to spy on people, for two people are profiting for spying on people, for three people are buying the information about the people who are getting spied on. It makes me wondered if I’m one of them. How am I supposed to know if someone has access to my offline data or even my personal identifiable information? I consider my personal information, mine and I should have a choice if I want to share it. I feel that the companies that are buying and taking information from people’s computer are stealing. I think profiting off other people’s personal information is so wrong. I think companies are taking advantage of internet for their own profit.