Recent blog posts

When it comes to privacy, we’re all just pretty little liars

More than 90 percent of people lie about their personal information online, according to a survey by Customer Commons. And who can blame …
Who is tracking you across the Web? Even the ad industry doesn’t know

Web tracking has become so widespread that nobody knows who all these companies are or what data they're collecting.
Faking it on Foursquare: Beware of bogus beauties bearing spam

Foursquare fakes are being used to promote travel apps, and the tools to fight them are virtually nonexistent. Get ready for a GPS …
Help, I'm being stalked by the BBC (and also online advertisers)

Web trackers are indeed following you -- though probably not as closely as one BBC reporter just did to me.
Millennials do care about Internet privacy, they’re just smarter about it

An Annenberg Center survey reveals younger folks are more willing to share personal data -- but also more likely to demand something in …
Why opt out is such a cop out

Don't like being tracked? Just opt out, says the ad industry -- and then makes that process as onerous as humanly possible.
Need a music fix? Tune into Murfie

Want to pack off your CDs, stream music to any device, and buy or swap albums for a song? Murfie will be music to your ears.
Further adventures in data mining, Or welcome to my Lear Jet lifestyle

Data miners like Acxiom know a lot about you -- or at least they think they do. We may soon find out exactly how much.
Why is RapLeaf still tracking me across the Web?

Data aggregator RapLeaf is still collecting sensitive data about me -- despite the fact I opted out of their database more than two years …
Facebook’s new ‘Home’ won’t solve its advertising problem

Facebook has an ad problem but it has nothing to do with phones. It's that Facebook ads are rife with spammers and scammers.

Four reasons why you should worry about online tracking (and advertising isn't one of them)

Pay no attention to the advertisers behind the curtain. The real battle over Do Not Track is bigger and scarier than which ads you're shown online.

By Dan Tynan

If you're a fan of Slayer but you don't smoke cigarettes, will you still be shown a higher rate when you go to renew your health insurance online, just because the insurance company assumes you do?

Or let's say you operate an 'exclusive' online club with a very restrictive membership policy. How hard would it be to exclude applicants for being of the wrong ethnic, sexual, or political persuasion? Not hard at all.

4. Two wrongs could still undo your rights

As I've written about a few times before, online data profiles are often wildly inaccurate. You may be a spindly old crone who never leaves the house, but data tracking company X thinks you're a NASCAR dad who smokes cigars and eats nachos. You may be pegged as a trendy soccer mom when you are instead a manly intrepid reporter who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

Multiple people may use the same browser, confusing the profilers. Or maybe you're clever and visit Web sites totally at random to pollute their data and throw them off the scent.

It doesn't matter. You might receive benefits you otherwise wouldn't – like coupons for that big party size bag of Doritos. Or you might be needlessly penalized by a car insurance company that decides you're a curly fries-eating metal-head who can't be trusted to obey the posted speed limit. But your profile data could still be used to make decisions about you in invisible ways.

It's a safe bet that tracking technology will get far more precise and accurate over time. Whether that's a comfort or a worry, I'm not sure yet. But I am sure we need a way to just say no to tracking, and for our choices to be honored.

Whether that's via some grand compromise between technologists and advertisers or it takes an act of Congress ultimately doesn't matter. But it has to happen.

Because it's important.

Got a question about social media or privacy? TY4NS blogger Dan Tynan may have the answer (and if not, he’ll make something up). Visit his snarky, occasionally NSFW blog eSarcasm or follow him on Twitter: @tynanwrites. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-to’s, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.

Now read this:

Web trackers are totally out of control

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Author Dan Tynan has been writing about Internet privacy for the last 3,247 years. He wrote a book on the topic for O'Reilly Media (Computer Privacy Annoyances, now available for only $15.56 at Amazon -- order yours today) and edited a series of articles on Net privacy for PC World that were finalists for a National Magazine Award. During his spare time he is part of the dynamic duo behind eSarcasm, the not-yet-award-winning geek humor site he tends along with JR Raphael.