User:Aidanpatrick/sandbox

In a CBS News article titled "The Data Brokers: Selling Your Personal Information", Steve Kroft argues that data brokers are selling our personal information to different companies including advertisers.

Wiki Article Starter
Not many people are aware of who data brokers are, what they do and where they can be found. In the simplest form, data brokers are companies that collect and sell some of peoples most personal information from places on the internet and sell it to different organizations. In an online article written by Steve Kroft of CBS News, he argues that data brokers are "collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity...to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge". Kroft, Steve. "The Data Brokers: Selling Your Personal Information." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 9 Mar. 2014. Web. 06 May 2015./ref> Some people also may wonder if we have the right to see what kinds of information these commercial companies have about us. Unfortunately, there is not a way that we can see the information. Julia Angwin who is the senior reporter at ProPublica and author of the book "DragnetNation", in a video on PBS News says that "No, we don’t have that right. So we’re one of the only Western nations that doesn’t have a law that allows us to see the data, that commercial data gatherers have". Angwin, Julia. "What Do Data Brokers Really Know about Us?" PBS. PBS, 06 July 2014. Web. 06 May 2015./ref> Facebook is an example of a data broker as well, Facebook collects and monitors our information and sells it to different companies. Andrew Brown, a writer for The Guardian, tells us that " Facebook won't change. Its entire business model depends on selling privacy to advertisers". Brown, Andrew. "Facebook Is Not Your Friend." The Guardian. The Guardian, 14 May 2010. Web. 5 May 2015./ref> With so many people having access to the internet whether it is via computer or cell phone, it is frightening to think about the amount of information these companies are collecting about us without our consent. This brings up the idea of how much privacy do we really have? With so many people on the internet, the privacy is very minimal.

Data Brokers and Targeted Advertising
Data brokers are companies that collect and sell peoples personal information without their consent both on and offline. These data brokers sell peoples personal information to multiple companies including advertisers, which leads to targeted advertising online. In an article written by Steve Kroft of CBS News, he states that data brokers are "collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity...to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information//ref> This multi million dollar industry has been overlooked for years, people are unaware that the social media status' they post are then collected and stored. Considering how many people are on different forms of social media today, data brokers and advertisers are not short when it comes to people to collect information on. The problem is that most of mainstream society is not aware that data brokers are watching their every move, collecting personal information about them and selling it to advertisers. Privacy online is a big topic that comes up from talking about data brokers and targeted advertising. Kroft also talks about the clickstreams in his article, he says "As you click through the web and view car sites or read about the news, companies, these third parties, will collect your click stream, as you click from site to site to site, to see what you may be reading, what you may be interested in, what types of things you might buy". </refhttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/ Advertising companies use this to their advantage, when you are on a sight and you see an ad from a website that you visit frequently, odds are that your click stream has been collected which has led to different forms of targeted advertising. Now that advertisers know which products the customer is interested in, they adjust the adds the customer views based on their interest.

Controversies
Julia Angwin who is a senior reporter at ProPublica, in an interview on PBS News Hour, talks about a story that she wrote in one of her books and this story is about a woman who was not open about her sexual orientation to her co-workers. But when her co-workers saw her computer and the advertisements on the screen were about gay and lesbian cruises suddenly all her co-workers knew her sexual orientation which she did not want to happen. This question of privacy comes up when talking about targeted advertising because these adds follow us everywhere on the internet, they are tailored to our needs and interests. This is a big controversy that needs more attention, people want their time on the internet to be private, they don't want to be reminded of other websites they may have visited due to advertisements. This is why things like AdBlock are so beneficial, they do not let advertisements appear on your screen when surfing the web.

Solutions
AdBlock
 * AdBlock is an extension of different servers including: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. What this extension does is that it filters different advertisements, in short it prevents the advertisements from appearing on your online webpage. This program is free to download as well. According to and article written by Noam Cohen of the New York Times, AdBlock was created on December 8th, 2009 and is Google Chrome and Safari's most popular extension, with what is said to have over 40,000,000 users.