I saw a small notice in the trades that Ticketmaster.com is going to start offering tickets to events that you print through your PC on your printer. Sounds very convenient. And convenience, it turns out, is a trade-off for privacy.
What got me thinking about this was a quote in the Ticketmaster article from executive vice president Tom Stockham, "We now know where a customer is going to be on the night of certain events," he said. "This offers us opportunities to link up with restaurants, bars and other merchants that do business in the area that the venue is located."
His point being that with 8 1/2 x 11 inches of "ticket" surface to play with, Ticketmaster could sell space for discount coupons and banner ads for merchants in the area of the event you'll be attending. Ticketmaster knows where you'll be and when. I don't really worry about someone stealing my credit card information from some online Web store because my liability is limited to $50 under the Fair Credit Billing Act, but I'd hate for burglars to get their hands on this type of information.
This got me to pondering on the idea of privacy versus convenience in our Internet-driven computer age. Privacy is a big concern according to the computer press. Just consider the hoo- haw over companies like Real Networks, Aureate/Radiate, or Conducent Technologies that profile your habits so that they (or the marketers they sell your profile to) can bombard you with ads targeted to your tastes. Or Comet Cursor that tracks the sites on the Web you visit for the same purpose.
There's even counter "spyware" software available like the free
OptOut from Steve Gibson that helps you prevent companies
gathering information without your knowledge on your computer.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/312/tr.cgi?priv1
I'm wondering if it's not just too late to try cry foul over the privacy issue given the huge role computers play in our society today. And I'm not talking just about the Internet.
Computers make it possible to record your purchases and buying habits. In some supermarkets a cash register hooked to a computer prints our your receipt and then adds a number of printed coupons to the tape. The coupons are for the items (or similar items) you've just purchased on the theory that these are the types of things you'll be buying in the future. Is this a convenience or a major compromising of your privacy? It gets sticky when you don't pay cash but use a credit/debit/store charge card or check to pay for your groceries. Now the store can match your purchases with your name and store all this in its database. Then they can sell your information. Who you are and what you buy is valuable information to folks who want to find you and sell you their stuff. And selling is what it's all about.
The same day I saw the TicketMaster piece I came across another news tidbit about a device marketed by Alabama start-up Mobiltrak that monitors and records what radio station a person is listening to on their car radio. This device is being used by concert promoters to see what people are listening to as cars enter the parking area for a concert. This tells them where there advertising was effective. The developers say it's not tied to individuals so there's no invasion of privacy but how hard would it be to associate the car license plate with the station information? I'm not saying that what you listen to on your car radio is a major privacy invasion but you see the pattern emerging. Everything you do has some marketability so someone is going to try to profile what you do and store it in a database somewhere.
Face it, the trade-off in convenience is that not only your buying habits are tracked but it is becoming easier and easier to pinpoint your physical whereabouts. Every time you punch the button on your cell phone it's possible that your exact location could be determined. That's what 911 emergency services and the cell phone providers have worked out so that in an emergency a 911 call can be tracked and located physically.
Now the big question is this... is the trade-off in convenience versus privacy a bad thing? If it is a bad thing, exactly how bad is it?
What you eat, what you drink, what you buy, where you buy it, what type of sites you surf, it's all target-able information. What you read from Amazon, what you watch when rented from the local Blockbuster, it's all in a database somewhere. Coupons you're likely to use as opposed to stuff you'd just toss out makes sense, but are we exposing too much of our personal habits for the convenience? One alternative is to stop using plastic and start paying cash for everything you buy but really, how practical is that these days?
Do privacy issues keep you awake at night or is it a non-event in your life? I imagine the thought of having a communications device installed in every home was a chilling thought to some in the pre-telephone age. Let me know what you think. Next time I'll discuss what some companies are doing about privacy in the workplace and what the Federal government has to say on the subject.
