Privacy

Privacy is a huge concern in our lives, and with so much of our life being taken over by surveillance, it’s hard to relax knowing you’re under a watchful eye. Behavioural targeting refers to online behaviour tracking, for example; tracking your browsing history. The purpose behind this is to be able to implement advertising that conforms more to your own repertoire. This caused uproar amongst  campaigners and privacy activists who argued that behavioural targeting is unnecessary and should instead conform to contextual targeting, an point first argued by Westin, in 1967. Now 43 years down the line, behavioural targeting is still very much a part of our online society. An arguement in favour of behavioural targeting suggests that all online activity is communication and not just social networking. However, I would argue that typing details into a machine, for your own personal use does not count as communication, because you are not aiming your needs or requests at another person. And although i do agree it is a clever advertising technique, it still interferes with a consumer’s privacy and can certain people quite paranoid.