iSpy: Our Privacy's in Jeopardy

We have 4 lives: Our public life, private life, secret life, and digital life.


Andejevic states that "Contextual advertising" (pg. 1)  is seen as google using users' locations to give time and location for specific ads to pop-up, whether it be through our browsers, smartphones, or applications through Facebook and Google. There were many instances where I  have encountered contextual advertising. One particular experience involved listening to the online unlimited radio station which we all know as Pandora. While tapping into my musical space, one specific ad struck me as annoying yet fascinating. It was a St. John's University advertisement about enrollment. What really puzzled me about this ad was how Pandora was able to use my location to advertise local restaurants and schools that are popular in NYC, seeing that St. John's is in Queens, and I reside in Brooklyn. My point, which Mark Androvick touches bases on, is that different internet services, most notably Google, are taking advantage and control of internet users' location in order to provide ads. In the case that Androvik discusses involving users receiving free wi-fi in San Francisco, my case is similar in that in return for providing free musical enjoyment, Pandora is utilizing my input of information on my account including my location in order to provide local advertisements. I would not be surprised if in a couple of years, or even months I should say, instead of us Pandora-lovers having the freedom to develop our own stations based on our personal music interests, we might instead be faced with completely automated playlists (which has already been generated with several company promotions such as Macy's and Facebook) or even have out personalized playlists be exploited through third-party servers without us even knowing.


I agree with Andrejevic when he states that digital enclosure involves a creation of an interactive realm, where every action and transaction develops information about itself within a physical space. The internet provides digital enclosure where the more we post on social networks, the more we and other services are able to locate our information. Thus our private information is not really private, but there should be a limit as to what personal information can be accessed through different anonymous services, although there is not a physical, contractual agreement between the user and the service provider stating and confirming that they cannot access our private information. In addition, although shopping services claim our transaction information would not be used for third party purposes we really cannot take the risk of jeopardizing our privacy...