People's
Deepest, Darkest Google Searches Are Being Used Against Them
On the Internet, search queries are used to target
vulnerable consumers.
NOV 3, 2015
Google knows the questions that
people wouldn’t dare ask aloud, and it silently offers reams of answers. But it
is a mistake to think of a search engine as an oracle for anonymous queries. It
isn’t. Not even close.
In some cases, the most intimate
questions a person is asking—about health worries, relationship woes, financial
hardship—are the ones that set off a chain reaction that can have troubling
consequences both online and offline.
All this is because being online
increasingly means being put into categories based on a socioeconomic portrait
of you that’s built over time by advertisers and search engines collecting your
data—a portrait that data brokers buy and sell, but that you cannot control or
even see. (Not if you’re in the United States, anyway.)
Consider, for example, a person who
googles “need rent money fast” or “can’t pay rent.” Among the search results
that Google returns, there may be ads that promise to help provide payday
loans—ads designed to circumvent Google’s policies against predatory
financial advertising. They’re placed by companies called lead generators, and
they work by collecting and distributing personal information about consumers
online. So while Google says it bans ads that guarantee foreclosure prevention
or promise short-term loans without conveying accurate loan terms, lead
generators may direct consumers to a landing page where they’re asked to input
sensitive identifiable information. Then, payday lenders buy that information
from the lead generators and, in some cases, target those consumers—online, via
phone, and by mail—for the very sorts of short-term loans that Google
prohibits.
“It’s a sucker list. And people will
buy that information for all different kinds of reasons.”
“Google has a decent
policy—including ‘obey the law’—but it’s a very hard policy for Google to
effectively enforce,” said Aaron Rieke, a projects director at Upturn, a
technology policy consulting group in Washington, D.C. “As a result, payday
advertisers are often violating it and skirting around it. The result is that
online payday marketers are reaching out to people nationwide, even to people
who live in states where payday lending—and the solicitation of payday loans—is
effectively illegal.” Google declined multiple requests to describe how it
developed its policies on ads for financial services.
Lead generators are increasingly
under scrutiny by federal agencies and consumer advocates. Upturn recently
released a damning report about lead generators,
and the practice was at the center of a workshop held by the Federal Trade Commission last
week.
“I find the entire online ecosystem
that is designed to track consumers and then to place them in boxes ... too
opaque and too under-regulated,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer-program
director at the consumer-advocacy group U.S. PIRG, during the FTC workshop on
Friday. “So I think the entire online marketing, and advertising, and
lead-generation system is a consumer protection problem of both deception, and
unfairness, and maybe abuse as well.”
Online lead generation is
complicated in part because it involves a long chain of different companies,
including but not limited to search engines, lead aggregators, and the
businesses that end up buying the leads. The practice also entails several
layers of privacy and consumer-protection concerns.
Not only are lenders taking
advantage of people in vulnerable financial situations, not only are lead
generators sometimes skirting Google’s ad policies and even violating state
laws, but companies are sharing individual data in a way that puts consumers
directly at risk. All this comes down to the widespread availability and
longevity of personal data online.
Imagine again the person who turns
to Google with a search term like “need money fast.” Let’s say that person ends
up at a lead generator’s landing page, providing various information in hopes
of getting a quick loan. “A very small percentage of those folks are actually
qualified for a loan,” said Michael Waller, an attorney in the Bureau of
Consumer Protection’s enforcement division at the FTC. “And so the vast
majority—95 percent of those applications, which means 95 percent of the folks
whose social-security numbers and bank-account numbers fall to the cutting room
floor—are referred to in the industry as ‘remnants.’”
Those so-called remnants aren’t
discarded, though. They are sold and resold and resold again. “What’s created
over a period of time is the consumers just become suckers,” Waller said in the
FTC workshop. “It’s a sucker list. And people will buy that information for all
different kinds of reasons.”
“Data brokers, publishers, folks who
have this information—and a lot of people have access to this information along
the chain because it’s shared freely even if it isn’t purchased—there’s a lot
of pressure on them to use, to monetize what they consider an asset,” Waller
said. “Which is just a big pile of data, a big pile of data points.”
As the big piles of data online
continue to grow, these issues will become more pronounced. Information filters
that control what version of the Internet a person sees are calibrated based on
how much money various algorithms think you have. Which means distinct
digital-advertising landscapes are increasingly drawn on socioeconomic lines.
The effect may be a more pleasant
online experience for someone who is perceived to have more income. In the same
way that startups have put a premium on cutting out human interaction for
those who can afford it, adlessness can be a luxury for those who choose to buy
ad blockers so their webpages load faster. But distinct ad landscapes aren’t
just about seeing more elegant corporate messages, or encountering fewer pop-up
ads—or even none at all. Companies and individuals are working together to
target consumers on a personal level, to use their most vulnerable Google
searches against them.
“Fraudsters buy this data,” Waller
said. “It’s easy to access, easy to buy, easy to find. They use it sometimes
for really shocking, outright fraud and theft. Sometimes it’s a little more
subtle than that.”
=========================================================
Good And Green Netiquette To All!
========================================================= For a great parody on email see this site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zwscoop_post=bcaa0440-2548-11e5-c1bd-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=2455618
==============================================
Special Bulletin - My just released book,
"You're Hired. Super Charge our Email Skills in 60 Minutes! (And Get That Job...)
is now on sales at Amazon.com
Great Reasons for Purchasing Netiquette IQ
·
Get more
email opens. Improve 100% or more.
·
Receive
more responses, interviews, appointments, prospects and sales.
·
Be better
understood.
·
Eliminate
indecision.
·
Avoid
being spammed 100% or more.
·
Have
recipient finish reading your email content.
·
Save time
by reducing questions.
·
Increase
your level of clarity.
·
Improve
you time management with your email.
·
Have
quick access to a wealth of relevant email information.
Enjoy
most of what you need for email in a single book.
=================================
**Important note** - contact our company for very powerful solutions for IPmanagement (IPv4 and IPv6, security, firewall and APT solutions:
www.tabularosa.net
==================================================
Note - Are You On Linkedin? Please visit (and join) the Netiquette IQ group
Another Special Announcement - Tune in to my radio interview, on Rider University's station, www.1077thebronc.com I discuss my recent book, above on "Your Career Is Calling", hosted by Wanda Ellett.
In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ
has a website with great
assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the
premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to
Improve,
Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super
Charge
Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been
published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for
young people. You can view my
profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems,
a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email,
network management software, security products and professional
services. Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.
Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
=============================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment