In
this article we discuss how Internet
spam invades your personal life
in ways you may not even be aware.
How much is your privacy worth to
you? How much should businesses
be allowed to know about you? Should
businesses be able to sell personal
information that they obtained while
you visited their site? How can
you protect your personal information
and still use the internet?
These are all questions that surround
the ever festering problem of spam.
Marketing companies go to great
extents to glean as much information
about you so as to maximize your
purchases of their products. Your
spending habits, browsing habits,
even your sleeping habits are put
on display in one fashion or another
for these companies. The mechanism
for harassment is email, but they
have offended and violated you long
before the email is actually sent.
The really sad part is that in most
cases we are unaware that it is
even happening.
When you go to some websites, certain
fact are recorded in great detail
so that they can begin (or append)
a file about you. These days, everyone
wants you to sign in, that way they
don’t have to programmatically
guess who you are, but they can
do that if they need to as well.
On some of these sites, every word
you type, every link you click is
meticulously recorded and stamped
with a relevance to you record.
To what end you ask? What if through
careful observation of you web browsing
they learned that you like horses.
They would then have the information
they needed to attempt to sell you
a product. Heaven forbid they find
out your single, because you would
then inundated with singles ads.
Sure it is annoying while browsing
a page to get those popups, but
what is worse is the spam that follows.
For the rest of your life they are
going to send you email about it,
what is even funnier (in a tragic
sort of way) is that once you are
in a demographic, you can never
leave. So even after you respond
to their singles ad, and find true
love, you still get those lovely
inbox warmers.
How far is too far? Well I think
they went too far and back again
several times over, those companies
are currently devoid of any respect
for your privacy, and this will
not change without drastic legal
turnaround. Unfortunately, how do
we tell someone to stop observing
our behavior? I mean it is a bit
like siblings at the breakfast table;
“Stop starring at me!”,
“I’m not”, “Stop
it or I’ll tell”, “go
ahead”, “DAD!!!”
But the fact that they put us under
the microscope is offensive to me.
So how do you get them to stop?
It seems like politely asking them
to stop does not do the trick. As
a matter of fact, sending an email
to them asking them to remove you
from their mailing list is like
committing email suicide, might
as well go get a new email address
now, because the box will soon be
flooding. Can’t get them to
stop though legal channels, because
they haven’t broken any laws,
our best bet is to limit the information
they can get from me.
The site has a privacy policy, shouldn’t
that protect me? Sure, if they are
respectable. I mean, it is not like
spammers have a high moral standard
is it. So, can you depend on the
company honoring that policy? If
the site is for a large reputable
company your odds are better, but
still not great. What about all
those sites that require you to
register before you can use the
site? Well unless it’s a commerce
site, find another one, the internet
is a huge resource for information,
it is highly unlikely that only
one site contains the knowledge
that you want. If you absolutely
must use the site, then register
using a free email account, there
are tons of free email services
out there, use one for your registrations
and it will help keep your inbox
free of spam.
Also be very careful with the personal
information they ask you to provide,
first of all, if it is not a required
field then don’t fill it in.
Secondly, if it’s a required
field and you think it too personal
or simply something you don’t
think they should know, fill it
in with “N/A” or “Not
Applicable” or “Not
Available”. I really don’t
care if a site knows I live in Texas,
but my phone number, when I am forced
to give it will always be 555-1212.
Remember this is your personal information,
the less they have of it, the less
they will harass you with spam.
Spam has a nasty way of adversely
affecting out lives, don’t
let it get you down, always try
to remember to take care and have
fun.
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