Cookies are Creepy

As a student, I spend quite a bit of time online. From Facebook to Amazon to Google, I endure ads specifically aimed at me.

At first glance, this may seem helpful, but it is actually kind of creepy and potentially dangerous. Especially when you begin to consider these methods aren’t just used for ads.

Facebook and a number of other sites use tracking cookies to monitor what you browse online, and then use this data to determine what ads would be most relevant to you.

They do this to maximize the likelihood you will buy a product, and the worth of their advertisement space will increase because it yields sales.
However, I have a couple problems with this method.

First of all, it’s kind of creepy. A website installs something on my browser I barely notice is there, and they receive all kinds of information about me without even trying.
It’s not like I’m Googling homemade murder weapons, but still, it feels like an invasion of privacy.

This information is kept and shared with multiple businesses and online entities, which only makes it worse. Google searches or impulse clicks I forget about 10 seconds after I close the tab are eternally remembered, shared and later used against me.

The second problem I have with this method is the pigeon hole it puts me in. Some people have more varied interests than others, but these cookies take your interests — or what it knows of your interests — and simplify them into a handful of stores and products.

We are lucky enough to have access to the widest container of information ever known. These ads confine us to tiny corners of this virtual world, and you would have no way of knowing. When you only ever see one thing, it is hard to believe there is anything different out there.

That is what makes these cookies and targeted advertisements dangerous. They lock people in homogeneous bubbles. They keep people one dimensional and make it harder for them to break out of their predetermined destinations by never letting them see the Internet past what’s been chosen for them.

Online stores like Amazon use algorithms created from this basic principle in order to showcase book preferences to customers. News sites often do the same thing to recommend articles. This is potentially the scariest outcome of all because this isn’t just shoes, it’s information.

We live in a world of hundreds of opposing voices and views, but these algorithms potentially limit people to one viewpoint or topic because they don’t bother to diversify the suggestions past what they think the customer wants to see.

When there is no challenge to the information, no other side to an argument, the customer gains a false sense of understanding about the topic — and, with no contradiction, may think the rest of the world agrees.

In the age of the Internet, we should be more open and receptive to information from all viewpoints and focuses, not just those we prefer. The web was supposed to broaden our horizons, not invent clever ways to isolate ourselves.

­— jordrile@indiana.edu