Week 5 EOC: WSJ

After reading this article I am appalled that this it is legal to mine information to that magnitude from my computer. “As a group, the top 50 sites placed 3,180 tracking files in total on the Journal's test computer. Nearly a third of these were innocuous, deployed to remember the password to a favorite site or tally most-popular articles” (Tsuei, 2010).  I do not believe for one minute that the information is kept anonymously. “Lotame packages that data into profiles about individuals, without determining a person's name, and sells the profiles to companies seeking customers” (Angwin, 2010). If this company has this much information about me and the location of where I am it also knows who I am and where I live along with how I pay my bills.  Is there nothing that is private anymore? Do these people know when I use the bathroom and how many pieces of toilet paper I use?

First it was the phones and having legal access to everything we say. Now I can see where this is all going, before you know it they will be mining information on our computers just like these so called marketing companies. “Tracking files get onto websites, and downloaded to a computer, in several ways. Often, companies simply pay sites to distribute their tracking files” (Angwin, 2010). Who knows how long it will be before the IRS has access to this information.  When is my privacy going to be protected as an individual, who is watching my back?  How long will it be before they use this information not only to manipulate us but worse to control us? It’s like that movie “The Net” with Sandra Bullock.  If you are not afraid you should be because all of this data can be manipulated to the benefit of someone else.