To Protect, or Not to Protect?

This is a very tough blog for me, as I do not fully understand the significance of the "Advertising Option Icon." That is not to say I don't know what it does. As I understand it, the website is geared towards informing people of the principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. But what is behavioral advertising?

Behavioral advertising is, as defined by www.bbb.org, Ads using information collected across multiple unaffiliated web sites that you visit in order to predict your preferences and show you ads most likely to be of interest to you.

While this is obviously a very useful tool,
many people fear that it is a violation of their privacy - and that is where this image to the right comes in. But will simply seeing this icon cause people to click? And even if they do click it, will they learn any truly helpful information? I personally am having some trouble believing that the answer to either of these questions is "yes."

After doing some research on their website, I have found that the publishers of www.aboutads.info believe they really will help, but no evidence that they actually will.

I took the liberty of asking a few of the more computer savvy people at my job if they had ever seen or heard of this company or their logo, and to no surprise they all answered "no." I asked them if they thought this company would be of any use to them, and they all answered "no", although half of them agreed that behavioral advertising does violate their privacy. I asked a total of 4 co-workers each of these questions.

So, according to this blogger, the consensus all seems to be the same: www.aboutads.info will be pretty much obsolete before any of your friends even discover what it is.

Can We All Be Crime Fighters?

What an amazing idea: Get paid to sit at home and fight crime? Sign me up! But at what cost does joining this internet business, a UK firm that goes by Internet Eyes, come? And will it really pay off?

According to their website, Internet Eyes pays users who successfully deter a crime, with their main focus being on shoplifting. On their main page, Internet Eyes points out that shoplifting is at its highest levels in the UK, and they claim to "combat this rise by detecting these crimes as they happen."

But how long do users have to sit and stare at their computers before spotting a crime? I've been in and out of stores my entire life, and I've only once spotted a kid stealing, and I even considered that to be pretty low odds. And even if you do witness someone shoplifting, what are the chances that you are actually going to successfully stop them from behind your computer monitor at home?

And then there is signing up, filling out forms, and registering to become a viewer on their website. I went through the process, but eventually decided it was in my best interest not to follow through and become a member. It wasn't the fact that they asked for personal information such as my address and telephone number, nor was it the fact that The United States wasn't available in their drop down list for "Country." Even after I discovered that they had a total of five different terms & conditions that I was supposed to read and agree to, I continued with my application.

It wasn't until after I filled out all of that information that they asked me to pay them for my subscription. Wait a minute - I thought I was the one who was supposed to be getting paid for this! I already had little doubt that I would never make a dollar off of this website, but now I am expected to pay this company in order to give them my services? So what is really going on here?

It is pretty obvious that there are people out there who would use this as an excuse to spy on unknowing strangers, but the fact that they require you to pay pretty much weeds out most of the genuine people who really want to help. I was going either way with this before - it seems to be violating privacy issues, but we already know that the cameras are watching us at these stores, plus it could be doing some good. To me, however, the simple fact that this website charges its users to look at strangers all day puts this in the category of inappropriate. For all I'm concerned, this idea should be squashed and we should leave the crime fighting up to the professionals.

The Digital Revolution is Here!

The world is changing, and we are all in the front seat of a massive revolution. It is said that the digital revolution began in the 1980's with the marketing of computers, and strengthened in 1992 with the invention of the internet. It is becoming evident, however, that the revolution is making its biggest impact here in the 21st century. With the inventions of such easy to use and convenient products as the Ipod, smart phones, Amazon's kindle, and now internet tablets; the need for hard copies of books, magazines, DVD's and music CD's is diminishing. The loss that many businesses are suffering due to their investments in such products is alarming, but newer companies are emerging and taking advantage. Amazon.com, one of the biggest internet retailers and the inventor of the Kindle, is reportedly worth $160.6 million; while Blockbuster, which has been around for 25 years and has over 6,500 stores world wide, just declared bankruptcy late last September.


But why such a big change, and why now? According to www.internetworldstats.com, in 2002 there were 1.2 billion cellphone subscribers and 631 internet users. By 2010 those numbers skyrocketed: 4 billion cellphone subscribers and 1.8 billion internet users. Those statistics are little bit scary. In the past 8 years, each of those numbers more than tripled, and we are seeing those changes have their affect every day. With so many people online, less and less are relying on printed copies. I can't remember the last time I've seen a newspaper, much less read one. I've even stopped subscribing to Foodnetwork Magazine and Consumer Reports, as all the information I need is on their easy to navigate websites.

Personally, I am all for these changes, as they are severely shrinking our carbon footprint... and whether people realize it or not, this has been a big concern for a while. Not only are we killing less trees, but deforestation and the usage of fuels is severely damaging our planet, and any reduction in these activities is huge. I for one am glad that the digital revolution is growing, and I'm excited to watch the world as it changes.