Information has become very valuable. Some even regard data as ‘the new gold’. One of the applications of data is digital marketing. I know that when I am browsing the Internet, for example when I am looking for shoes, that my behavior on the Internet is being tracked. Namely, when I visit another website, I see that the ads all regard shoes. I know that I am being tracked and I am receiving ads that are actually relevant. No big deal, right?
However, my opinion changed after watching a documentary by Zembla about trackers. It seems that data brokers know more about us than our partner or our friends. The trade of online behavior of billions of people is a multibillion-euro industry. We are being watched continuously while browsing the Internet. Trackers know what holiday destinations we’re looking for and what type of shoes we want to buy. This sounds pretty harmless on itself. However, it appears that Internet users are also being tracked when they are looking for solving relationship issues, diseases and debts. With this data, data miners make profiles of individuals, which are being sold to marketers, but also to insurance companies and credit analysts.
For example, there are lists of persons being sold based on very sensitive information. An example is a list of ‘losers’ that based on their Internet behavior are likely to be prone to short term loans. This is not the only example of a group of individuals that is being profiled based on sensitive information. E.g. it also appears that there is a list of rape victims being sold.
All in all, this trend worries me. The trade in personal information is not transparent at the moment and I think that there is not enough control on these data brokers. What do you think about this trade in data? Do you think that Internet users should not be so naïve about leaving traces on the Internet, or do you think that the users of Internet should be more protected by the government and that the business described above should become more transparent?
Hereby a link to the documentary, which is very interesting to watch for all (dutch-speaking) BIM students: http://zembla.vara.nl/dossier/uitzending/data-het-nieuwe-goud
