Monitoring, eveasdropping, spying, surveillance – these are terms that even the layman today associates with NSA – thanks to the recent spate of exposes about who and what the NSA has been monitoring. One assumes that when European heads of state have not been spared, others are just too easy. While the NSA may not have any real interest in what I do, other conglomerate websites like Facebook and Shutterstock have a very real interest in how I behave with their websites – since it might mean more money for them.
Targeted advertising is what we are talking about. To this end, Shutterstock looks at every move a user makes, in order to “optimize the Shutterstock experience”, Shutterstock founder and CEO Jon Oringer told Wall Street Journal in an interview in March this year. Specifically, Shutterstock is tracking where a user’s cursor is hovering, how long it hovers above an image before being bought.
Facebook’s head of Analytics, Mr. Ken Rudin has told Wall Street Journal in an interview that Facebook is also planning to collect more detailed data about the user’s behaviour with the website, including where the cursor is hovering and for how long.
Mr. Rudin says that they should know in a couple of months whether the data they collect is of any value to the organisation.
So, what’s next? Will you be administered a mild electric shock if you hover for a very long time over an advertisement without clicking on Buy? Or maybe you will hear hypnotising voices that urge you click and be done with it.
Information Security, SSAE 16, ISO 27001, CISA, Cert-IN
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