How Google is Tracking Your Online Web Surfing Behavior

[Caramelo]

Firefox add on?

I tried it on FF also with the same result.  I missed the info about the add on for FF.  Apparently I need it but I don't know where to get it or what to look for.

[kpac]

But the intent is what makes the difference. The cookie is there only to make their service better for you. Would you want ads for knives if you didn't cook, but you would like to know new computer prices (if you were actually interested in google ads)?

The ads are only good for one bunch of people - webmasters. I think they should have left them they way they were, where the ads were chosen based on the content of the page they were shown on.

[BC_Programmer]

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

“*censored* isn't merely paved with good intentions, it is walled and roofed with them”


“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

“It is difficult to say who do you the most harm: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best”

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

Intent is irrelevant.

[patio]

Well put...

[Helpmeh]

Thanks for shooting me down in flames BC.
But I guess the ads could be beneficial if they were dependant on the content of the page...Who would visit a page (on purpose) if they didn't like the content?

[Aegis]

It's like Amazon.com - the old joke, especially since the former worker who wrote a play about the amazon corporate culture, is:  "We're not a warehouse, we 'preference aggregators.'"  So, the concept that drives all this, which I know everyone knows, is the advertising revenue that's supposed to pay for all this "free" stuff.

So, Google also aggregates your preferences, and presents ads to you.  Like Helpmeh says, I can see where it might be beneficial to receive ads about products and services in which you are interested.  I don't believe he's unaware of the other side of that coin.

[soybean]

But the intent is what makes the difference. The cookie is there only to make their service better for you. Would you want ads for knives if you didn't cook, but you would like to know new computer prices (if you were actually interested in google ads)?

Helpmeh, I, for one, agree with you.  Marketers have been using techniques for eons to target advertising to consumers based on demographics.  Before the Internet, techniques such as surverys and questionnaires were used, and still are.  But, the Internet obviously provides a new way of doing this, a way that is much faster and probably much more precise. 

This is just part of capitalism.  The Internet has become a major factor in the economies of developed countries.  To thwart Internet marketers from using the Internet for targeted advertising is to oppose economic growth and creation of jobs, which is something badly needed in these trying economic times.

[Mulreay]

But the intent is what makes the difference. The cookie is there only to make their service better for you. Would you want ads for knives if you didn't cook, but you would like to know new computer prices (if you were actually interested in google ads)?

Or you could argue if I want something I'll look for it myself.

[BC_Programmer]

Helpmeh, I, for one, agree with you.  Marketers have been using techniques for eons to target advertising to consumers based on demographics.  Before the Internet, techniques such as surverys and questionnaires were used, and still are.  But, the Internet obviously provides a new way of doing this, a way that is much faster and probably much more precise. 

This is just part of capitalism.  The Internet has become a major factor in the economies of developed countries.  To thwart Internet marketers from using the Internet for targeted advertising is to oppose economic growth and creation of jobs, which is something badly needed in these trying economic times.

OK, you guys so sign up for a bunch of spam lists then...

[Helpmeh]

OK, you guys so sign up for a bunch of spam lists then...

What harm could befall from advertising that relates to your browsing? (rhetorical question)

[BC_Programmer]

It's harvesting your data.

If they will sell this data to advertising companies, they can easily sell it to some other companies, etc etc and on down the ladder. eventually it ends up on innumerable spam lists.

[Helpmeh]

It's harvesting your data.

If they will sell this data to advertising companies, they can easily sell it to some other companies, etc etc and on down the ladder. eventually it ends up on innumerable spam lists.

By data they mean which sites you visit the most, what those sites are about, information that would benefit adsense in choosing what ads to display.

BC, you are seriously becoming a conspiracy theorist, one of the web jerks mentioned in a thread posted recently.
Google is doing this to make their ads better for you!

[BC_Programmer]

no... dead reckon is a conspiracy theorist.

 As was said before, this is all in the name of capitalism. What's stopping them from capitalizing on the data they collected by selling it to third parties.


If people wanted to see ads there wouldn't be popup blockers or ad blockers.


More to the point- Other companies have to ASK... as in opt IN, to get this type of information. For example- Microsoft with it's Customer Experience program (sure, it nags the bejesus out of you, but it is an opt in affair).

This is akin in some ways to "EULA inside the box" conundrum. If you cannot open the box without agreeing to the EULA that is inside the box how do you know what it is your agreeing to? In a similar vein, the "opt-out" approach defaults people to receiving this "service", and chances are- they will have no knowledge of it.


additionally re: the concept of ads. I have NEVER let an advertisement sway my opinion in any way; all commercials/advertisements are trying to sell a product- they aren't going to tell you anything bad about their product.

Using an ad as a jumping off point for any purchase whatsoever is starting the shopping experience on the wrong foot; obviously it wasn't something you needed. or else you would have it already. Instead it is more or less capitalizing on some peoples innate need to have more and more posessions.

Another thing is every click on the Ad generates revenue. How? How does an Ad generate revenue? from the advertising companies buying from the hosting page. This brings to light a possible conflict of interest- what if said site explicitly recommends a competing product?

Over time as a web site gets more and more of it's income through advertising there is a thirst- even a greed- for more.

In this situation even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Consider the previous statements which seem to imply that google will do no wrong with the data. Honestly I don't see how collection, harvesting and categorizing my browser activities, and generally watching my every move online is a good thing, but apparently some people have decided that "privacy" is a thing of the past. Basically what happens is in their thirst for more advertisements they are forced to sanitize the site of "competing" products in order to get the advertisers approval. At that point what once was harmless advertising/advert profiling has now changed the content of a site and biassed it in one way or another thus contaminating the site as a whole.

of course, if anybody says so they just call them a conspiracy theorist. Of course in that instance they obviously haven't a clue as to what exactly a conspiracy theorist is, especially in this particular case as I presented nothing that can be called a conspiracy.

[Mulreay]

I whole heartedly agree. 

Or you could argue if I want something I'll look for it myself.

[Helpmeh]

As was said before, this is all in the name of capitalism. What's stopping them from capitalizing on the data they collected by selling it to third parties.

As I've said before, the data it collects is which sites you visit. The only companies who would be interested are companies trying to acomplish the thing google ads is acomplishing. How can that information be added to spamlists?

Honestly, I have to defend google ads...I DON'T EVEN SEE GOOGLE ADS.

This makes me feel like I am defending homosexual rights at school... at the same time as assuring that I am not, even though I am defending it.