Advertising

            Advertising is impossible to avoid. However advertising on the internet has reached a point that it is more invasive than most people would like it to be. They used to just be pop-ups online, but with the use of pop-up blockers advertisers have had to find different and more creative ways to reach out to potential customers. Everyone sees advertisements on the sidebars of websites, but we easily ignore these advertisements. Even this is not enough to stop advertisements. They are reaching out so far now that they are breaking privacy laws. Using people’s history to figure out what websites they have visited can give advertisers a better idea of what type of product they want to try to sell to this particular person. They simply take advantage of something that happens every time a website is visited. It allows them to view history and send advertisements taylor made for the person based on what websites have been visited. Viewing history is legal if they are viewing other websites in their network that were visited by a person. The line has been crossed when the entire history is viewed and the person is harassed by advertisements.

            Everyone has experienced online advertisements. However we hope that we are never subjected to the type of advertising some people have to endure. If I received advertisements all the time based on my browsing history it would make me fearful to continue exploring online. Special software is used to search through a person’s history and the FTC is becoming better equipped to find and shut down people using this particular software. This is a scary idea. Knowing that someone can see what websites we have been accessing and advertise to us based on that so easily. Many parents are concerned about their children on the internet and this is certainly something to be afraid of.

            This also brings up the idea of responsible internet browsing. We can easily access anything we want on the internet. However it does in fact fall on us to know what sites we visit. If certain websites are visited it will make it easier for someone to access or history and send us more and more advertisements. Even with all of the security software we have today someone will find a way around it. I do not think that we will ever be free of advertisements especially online. We do take responsibility for what we see and access on the internet including advertisements. We do not choose them directly but by what we do on the internet. I am no professional but I feel that if we think a little more about what we click on we have the ability to limit the advertisements we see.

            The internet is one of the most powerful things we have today. We as people have to step up and control the internet rather than the other way around. Advertisements will never be stopped, but we do in fact have the power to limit the control that these advertisements have over us.

Leibowitz, Jon. FTC Breaks Up Personally Invasive Online Advertising Scam. Newsroom Magazine, 6 Dec. 2012. Web.