Database Marketing and You As technology progresses, our consumer protection laws struggle to keep up with the new and invasive ways that companies and large corporations collect, analyze, and sell personal data extracted from the public. The NSA’s collection of data and tracking of digital activities has raised an increasing amount of concern from the public. However, many companies also utilize this unregulated type of data collection. Social media has created a new way for these companies to gain access to deeply personal information on almost everyone and has, therefore changed the data-mining game entirely. Now more than ever, it is important to share the truth about data-mining and database marketing so that people can take steps to
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In Alice Marwick’s essay, How Our Data Are Being Deeply Mined she states that, “Social media allows us to collect and track data about ourselves” (Marwick 6). Social media allows us to connect with other people as well as ourselves, and through doing so, improving our lives. Unfortunately, the kind of information we share on social media is not only useful to us but also to data brokers. By using the pieces of information found about someone on social media, profilers are able to create a broader picture of them. These complete profiles then get sold and sorted by marketing …show more content…
The answer is simply to opt-out of loyalty cards and programs and steer clear of all social media and the Internet in general. That plan, however, is impossible in today’s day and age. We are tracked wherever we go, whether it be just driving down the street or shopping at the mall. In the words of Marwick, “The technology is developing far more rapidly than our consumer protection laws, which in many cases are out of date and difficult to apply to our networked world” (Marwick 9). The NSA needs to be scrutinized more closely and put under investigation that calls for more transparency in the collection of data. We must also apply pressure to private corporations to ensure that marketing campaigns don’t jeopardize our privacy. The more information the public has, the better equipped they will be to fight against database marketing and protect their
In Alice Marwick’s essay, How Our Data Are Being Deeply Mined she states that, “Social media allows us to collect and track data about ourselves” (Marwick 6). Social media allows us to connect with other people as well as ourselves, and through doing so, improving our lives. Unfortunately, the kind of information we share on social media is not only useful to us but also to data brokers. By using the pieces of information found about someone on social media, profilers are able to create a broader picture of them. These complete profiles then get sold and sorted by marketing …show more content…
The answer is simply to opt-out of loyalty cards and programs and steer clear of all social media and the Internet in general. That plan, however, is impossible in today’s day and age. We are tracked wherever we go, whether it be just driving down the street or shopping at the mall. In the words of Marwick, “The technology is developing far more rapidly than our consumer protection laws, which in many cases are out of date and difficult to apply to our networked world” (Marwick 9). The NSA needs to be scrutinized more closely and put under investigation that calls for more transparency in the collection of data. We must also apply pressure to private corporations to ensure that marketing campaigns don’t jeopardize our privacy. The more information the public has, the better equipped they will be to fight against database marketing and protect their