Takeaways for Week 7

1. Tracking of online activity

• Cookies
• A number/text file downloaded to your computer (principally on your browser) that the website can correlate with that computer, recognizing that you've been there before
• Enable you to get around putting in all your information every time you visit that site
• Example: Cookies on Amazon allows the website to remember your billing info
• Super Cookies: Even if you log out of a site (like Facebook), it will still track your online activity
• Don't work as well on mobile devices
• Web beacons
• Small, often undetectable bits of code that are embedded in websites/documents. Identify and monitor user activity on that particular website. Will tell the server how long you were on that particular page.
• Canvas fingerprinting
• Also known as digital fingerprinting.
• Performs the same functions as Cookies. It will instruct your browser to draw a unique, hidden image that will identify your device
• Allows tracking over multiple platforms
• All these tools allow for tracking online activity
• This info is sold to online agencies that target the sites you visit with specific advertisements
• Targeted or behavioral advertising advertises items that match your interests based on collected data. Has a higher reception rate than typical advertising.
• Advertising agencies are using info they've gained about you either directly or from other sources to develop these targeted advertisements.
• Discomfort for these tracking methods led to Do Not Track
• Meant to allow the consumer to opt out of having their web surfing tracked. Similar to the "Do Not Call" list, where people are allowed to opt out of solicitation calls.
• After about 5 years, the parties could not come to an agreement to do this voluntarily, and the Do Not Track effort failed.
• Major browsers began to build in a Do Not Track header. When they attempt to connect to a website, they now include a header a signal that says that this individual does not want to be tracked. This does not mean you are being tracked, as the website owners do not have to honor that signal.
• The Digital Advertising Association represents all the major online advertisers, opposed Do Not Call, proposed a voluntary program for users to opt out of being sent targeted adds, although you would still be tracked online
• Rise of the adblockers
• Data brokers began to develop counter programs to counter adblockers
• Technology arms race between the blockers and anti-blockers

2. Opt-In vs. Opt-Out

• Web tracking should be allowed by default unless the consumer affirmatively opts out (8 in class are for this position)

Vs.

• Web tracking should only occur when a web user affirmatively opts into a tracking program (8 in class are for this position)

3. Consequences of Anti-Tracking

• 8 in class have installed adblockers
• What would be the likely impact of 80, 90% of users used adblocking software?
• Most sites would lose their primary source of revenue, might resort to putting up a paywall
• NYTimes has done this with their online news site
• 4 in class have upgraded to YouTube Red, Spotify Premium, Google Play, etc. which are add free service but charge a fee instead

4. Online Behavioral Advertising

• The online trade agency DAA was against Do Not Track, and implemented an icon to click on Adchoices
• Can go on the DAA site and see how many companies are tracking you (127 for me)

5. Question of the Week

• Would you be willing to pay a monthly fee of $25 to access the WWW is ad free and no tracking?
• Yes…6
• No….9
• For one group, the answer was based around a function of cost (e.g. I would pay $5 but not $25)
• For another group, it was an issue of equality, that the Internet is a democratic platform that everyone should have access to, don't want different "classes" of users
• Net neutrality: ability to pay for better/faster access to the web (highspeed broadband)
• Can also include the concept of service providers throttling access to other sites (Comcast restricting  user access to Netflix but not Hulu)
• Could we support universal access to the Internet?
• For the third group, this was an issue of privacy protection. One should be willing to protect their privacy no matter the cost vs. some who wrote that they thought it wasn't that valuable.

6. Devan Parkinson's Blog Post

• Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act
• Has not even gotten out of committee to be voted upon
• Argues that
• Too costly for businesses to comply
• Little benefit to consumers
• 8 classmates disagreed
• Hannah would like the option to opt out of brokers selling their personal information
• Question of the burden being on the consumer to avoid tracking?
• Christian Hansen (that's me!) feels that the EU standard of companies being required to obtain permission from people in order to collect data about them is the way to go
• Target figured out that a person's daughter was pregnant before the father found out- what else is deducible?

7. Data Brokers

• $156 Billion industry, a "shadow industry"
• Congress has been unwilling to regulate this industry for legitimate and illegitimate reasons
• They collect huge amounts of information, and very little info about its use and collection
• Can't use certain information for employment reasons
• Can't ask someone their race or gender to determine housing
• Can't ask someone about medical conditions when seeking health insurance
• Acxiom has profiles on over 500 million individuals, sometimes with over 1500 data points on a person
• Created a website where you can request the core data that you have about you, do not display "inferred" or modeled data about who they think you are based on analytics
• Provides info on demographics, home, vehicles, purchases, and economics
• Consumer Classifications
• Addictive personality
• Reckless behavior
• Allergy sufferer
• Dieter
• Heavy social media user
• HIV/aids sufferer
• Gambler
• Non-English speaker
• Single mother struggling in an urban setting
• Rape/Sexual assault victim