Did you know that Google uses computer technology to scan your email and send you advertisements about what you wrote? Do you feel that is ethical?
View the video piece about this topic: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/courtroom-battle-brewing-email-privacy-20184832
After watching the video I myself still find no agreement to whether it is invasion of privacy or not. This is because at the end the media had stated that it was computers and not "humans" reading or "recognizing" key words in our emails to give us helpful advertisement. It is ethical in a way that brings the user ease of access in finding what they need. I feel that since a lot of other major brands of email is using a technique like this it is okay to scan and send advertisement to you on the side. To solve the solution on whether this is invasion of privacy, Google should make an option where you can turn it off. As well as let the user know right from the start that they will be scanning emails for advertisement so that no user is caught off guard. : )
ReplyDeleteI saw this on the news the other morning and thought to myself, that doesn't surprise me. While you should feel fairly secure in privacy of your email, it probably says somewhere in the mile long rights and agreement notification when you sign up that is is what they do. I think it is only one small step from computers spitting out ads specific to your email subject to companies using the info computers peek through to target you even more directly. What is really the difference between a computer and a person snooping through your email? The info is floating around somewhere for someone to latch on to. I agree with Ruel that it should be an option to turn it off, even if it means a small fee. (When you buy Kindle's now you can pay to have the ads removed that pop up when you swipe it on. I think it's $20 or so.)
ReplyDeleteThey just teamed up with Microsoft and yahoo to put a full page ad in a major newspaper asking the government to ease up on the spying. How ironic it that?
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