Privacy Markets in 2014 and Questions to be Discussed
The issue of a private market is a challenging aspect of using technologies to reach consumers. Modern technologies provide marketers with opportunities to access real-time location data and contact consumers with the help of mobile devices. This modern approach to the private market is geofencing, and it is abusive for consumers who can be manipulated by marketers because of the accessed personal data about the individual’s location (Silk par. 1).
Questions to be answered in this case: 1) What personal data are known to marketers? 2) Are received messages opt-in? 3) Do marketers use personal location data for other purposes other than messaging?
Privacy Markets in 1997
In 1997, a privacy market began to develop actively. Specialists noted that the web surfing history, information about preferable websites, and personal data became known to marketers with the help of ‘cookies.’ Consumers became asked about allowing to use opt-in messages (Shapiro par. 3). The collection of personal data, surveillance, and the use of data for different purposes provoked active debates on the issue of privacy.
Similarities and Differences
The period in twenty years did not change the persons’ vision of the privacy market significantly because the marketers’ use of personal data is still discussed as a provocative question. However, there are differences in technologies that are used to access, collect, and use personal data. Thus, it is important to focus on similarities and differences in people’s reactions to the private market.
It is common for the late part of the 1990s and for the 2010s to discuss such aspects of the Internet technologies as ‘cookies,’ location-based services, and messaging alerts as violating the customers’ privacy rights. Modern users of the Internet and mobile devices pay much attention to protecting their personal data, as it was in 1997.
Still, there are also differences in approaching the problem. The public’s concerns regarding the use of cookies and other information collection systems increased intensively because advanced technologies allow easier access to not only the Internet activities of consumers but also to personal information and financial accounts (Bell 193; McNeil 12).
Moreover, modern technologies provide marketers with information about the real-time location of consumers. Such geofencing is discussed as one of the most abusive forms of violating the person’s privacy with text alerts. Modern persons cannot feel secure because each aspect of their personal life became known to marketers.
Prediction and Introduction
The era of digital media changed people’s vision of technologies and their role in a person’s life. In this context, the issue of the privacy market remains to be urgent for more than fifteen years. The problem is in the fact that marketers see many benefits in using customers’ personal data, and the privacy of consumers is ignored with the focus on using ‘cookies,’ data collection systems, alert messages, and geofencing. The lack of confidentiality and privacy can be discussed as a characteristic feature of modern society, and consumers have few chances to oppose the well-developed system of recording personal data. Although today people often think about the private market as a direct violation of their privacy rights, this vision can change in the next twenty years because of the advantages of the private market.
In twenty years, people can become more loyal in relation to the lack of privacy. The reason is that persons begin to understand the advantages of the lack of privacy. The privacy market will allow companies to propose goods and products according to their customers’ preferences while saving their time and money. The society in twenty years will become extremely consumerist, and the lack of privacy is advantageous for this society. As a result, people will stop fearing their privacy because of the necessity to focus on time-consuming activities. It is possible to predict that companies will not develop strategies to intrude into consumers’ lives; instead, they will be able to warn customers about observed unusual financial activities.
Works Cited
Bell, James John. Exploring the Singularity. 2003. PDF file. Web.
McNeil, Hayden. Custom Reader: Evolving Ideas: Focused Inquiry. Virginia: VCU, 2014. Print.
Shapiro, Andrew. Privacy for Sale: Peddling Data on the Internet. 1997. Web.
Silk, Matt. Geofencing Can Be an Invasion of Privacy. 2014. Web.