VIEWPOINT: Don't look, but somebody out there is watching you

At the Marcom Asia 2000 seminar in Hong Kong earlier this month, Robert Fitzgerald of Web Connection Media used the term "electronic stalking" in reference to certain marketing tactics which are being deployed on the Internet and related new technology, such as WAP. Last month, Time magazine featured a cover story about electronic spies in cyberspace which "mine" data every time you log on - illegally, and without your consent - and send this information back to people who will then use it or sell it. Consumers have long been wary about providing credit card details in order to shop online due to security fears; now they have something else to worry about. Such electronic stalking and spying is far more disturbing by their very nature: they pretend to exist solely to make your life easier, but their methods are sinister. Internet industry pundits have been trumpeting the fact that online, it's the consumer who makes the rules and forces the marketer to play by them. Consumers have the power - or do they? Could it all be just an illusion? Think about it: increasingly, sites are demanding that users register their details before they can proceed beyond a basic level of information within that site. It is not always clear why this information is requested, or what the site owners are going to do with it. Sure, demographic profiles and so on are vital when it comes to obtaining advertising support, but you have to wonder if that is where the buck stops. Another thing to think about: cookies. You can erase them on your computer, but haven't you ever wondered if any trace of them remain on the server, or if the website has 'tagged' you in some other way which you don't know about? George Orwell's predictions might have been a bit premature when he wrote 1984, but the days of Big Brother watching our every move are here nonetheless. If you're fine with that, then there's no problem. But if you don't like the idea that someone out there is keeping tabs on you, then something needs to be done. It would surely behoove the Internet industry to address this situation now, before rising consumer opinion forces the issue.

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