Hi, everybody,
I live a pretty standard geriatric life, so it’s been hard for me to imagine why anybody should care if Google is tracking. But, finally I was able to imagine the KIND of reason. Let’s say I am working for company X and thinking of quitting and getting into something new. My boss and I are at my computer working on a project, and suddenly my boss notices that my computer is putting up all these adds for University advanced degree programs and head-hunting services. “What’s with that, Nick?”
This thought led me to be curious about two services offered by FireFox which I don’t think I have heard discussed here before. Ghostery (http://www.ghostery.com/) tracks the trackers and DoNotTrack ( http://dnt.mozilla.org) informs companies that you do not want to be tracked. Both seem to be free, although, given that nothing is free in this world, one wonders where they get their money.
The Ghostery page raises some interesting questions concerning whether advertising on the web is really something that ought to be permitted at all. Remember the good old days when Freeways didn’t have signs and you could actually see the scenery? No. Actually, you probably don’t! [Sigh].
On the other hand, I can imagine all sorts of psycho diagnostic services springing up for people who wake up in the morning wondering who they really are. (http://www.waia.org) (Who am I, Anyway?). (“Just give us one week of Google Tracking results, and we will tell you what you should do when you get up in the morning.”) Most psychological counselors operate on much less information. Much better than a newspaper horoscope.
Don’t ever say I didn’t suggest a profitable business model for the complex. (};-)]
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org
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