Sunday, March 9, 2014

The freak of all freaks

I saw a really interesting / disturbing piece last night on 60 Minutes about how we are electronically spied on with every email we send / receive, every site we visit, every online purchase we make, etc.  

There are companies that specialize in this "data gathering", hoovering it all up and then creating profiles of over 200,000,000 of us (so far) which they sell to....who knows....so they can aim ever more targeted advertising at us.

Their profiles can tell if you have cancer, diabetes, migraines, you name it, by knowing what you've purchased online or mentioned in a Tweet or email.  Your political affiliation, your sexual preference, your hobbies, your pet peeves, your financial status, your investments....it is totally, 100% invasive.  They probably know more about you than your spouse does.


So here's what I was thinking we should all do:  Leave a smokescreen of disinformation for them to incorporate into your dossier.  Make them think you're a cross-dressing bisexual environmentalist Republican who has slept with both Madonna and Rush Limbaugh.  

Someone who has bought a place in Colorado just for the legal weed, and frequently watches Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network.
  
Someone who loves collecting butterflies, swinging, and attending monster truck rallies, who has sent proposal letters to Honey Boo Boo AND her mom (The Big Boo Boo?), and who has only 3 toes on each foot.  Someone who wears tap shoes, whose favorite color is black, and prefers to wear it with thigh-highs.  

Let these "data gatherers" put together a profile of THAT mythical person and then sit back and see what kind of targeted advertising comes our way.  Should be interesting, huh?  ;)

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I love commercials with a dry sense of humor.  This one tickles me:




It's Monday.  Again.  Go get 'em....rah.  :)

S


7 comments:

  1. I must not be one they've profiled yet as all the ads I get are for finding local sluts.

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  2. Scott, after this post it will be interesting on hearing about the spam you get (grin).

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  3. Most of the spam I get is focused on convincing me my manhood isn't as grand as it should be. Someone out there must be talking about me.

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  4. I don't read my spam emails. Gmail just funnels them to a spam file and I delete them without ever opening them.

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  5. I'm immune to advertising, and I'm pretty sure they are confused by me already.

    And that "tracking where I go" thing...I use it to my advantage. Every time I check on the price of "my" camera at Amazon and it still isn't on sale, I sigh, and I put in "bestbuy.com" next. I want them to know that I know where else to look!

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  6. Ha! OK, I'm headed to amazon right now to buy something that's totally not me. Except I have no idea what that would be. Hmmm. Diapers? - or would they just assume that I need them myself now that I'm 50?

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  7. Been doing basically similar longer than I've been on fb. fin

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