Online ads versus privacy

For advertisers, and in many ways for consumers, online advertising is a blessing. Customized messages rescue advertisers from the broad reach of traditional media. And consumers can learn about products and services that appeal directly to them.
To approach individuals with customized advertising, you have to know who they are. Or at least, you have to gather enough personal information about them that their identity could be easily figured out.

Read the article HERE.


You've seen it happen many times. I live in Adelaide, South Australia. I visit a US based website. The ads I see are for an Australian political party. But if I choose to disguise my location then I am presented with an ad aimed at an American audience. Is this an invasion of privacy - or just using the technology available to us to its best advatage? I guess we always have the option of surfing "under cover".

And don't even get me started on the [privacy] subject of the new [US] laws that require internet service providers to modify their networks and give the FBI access to the usage habits of customers. Internet’s big surveillance has begun. This, in a country where you can back up your SUV to a gunshop and load it with enough firepower to bring down a small nation.