Targeted advertisements have become a hot topic in the last few years in our new digital culture. You go online to shop for new basketball shoes on Nike’s website, and just four minutes later you see ads for the new Air Jordans on you Twitter feed. While they are intended to make the life of the consumer easier and more streamlined, these ads have caused a more divisive reaction. The public has become torn about the ethics behind these ads. How do they know what I just bought? What else do they know? Is this even legal? These questions and many more have sparked tons of debate on this issue.

Targeted advertising is an advertising technique that utilizes cookies, or bits of information the user leaves as they go through a website, to target certain ads at a user based on what they have looked at or bought. Advertising companies though is if they can see what you have looked at or bought in the past, they can give you ads that are similar to those things so there is a higher chance of you being interested in them. While this may feel like an invasion of privacy to many, it certainly isn’t illegal. Websites will tell you if they use these cookies. At that point, you should assume nothing you are doing on the websites is private. https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/what-is-targeted-advertising/1/

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to this issue. The first saying that they do not mind the targeted ads because it does not change how they use media. They pay more attention to the benefits that come with this system of advertising. These two main benefits are a more streamlined delivery of desired goods and more relevant ads to your interests. Because of these improvements and a disregard for what information they are actually “giving up”, the users in this camp do not mind targeted advertising. The point is that just because the ads are similar to what you have looked at before, nothing physically changes about the media itself. https://www.ereach.net/benefits-of-targeting-advertisements/

The second generally held opinion on this issue is that targeted ads are very alarming and a huge invasion of privacy. while the ads themselves are nothing in themselves to fear, the act of giving this information to third-party advertising companies is a scary thing to think about for a lot. To them, these ads are just the beginning of what will come from selling information. These individuals value their privacy above all else which is very understandable. Everyone wants to feel like they are in control of their own actions of the internet. However, this may just not be possible anymore. https://www.cio.com/article/3336063/the-importance-of-preserving-user-privacy-with-a-prudent-approach-to-targeted-advertising.html

While people have differing opinions on this debate, there has been some common ground between the two groups. A study by Harvard’s business school showed that as long as the websites were transparent and told the users that they were taking information for ads, they had no problem with their information being taken. As long as the website told the user initially what kind of date collecting and advertising techniques were being used, the user was a lot more inclined to accept these terms. These results show that many find not big issue with their information being used in advertising as long as they know exactly what is going on behind the scenes. Transparency seems to be key. https://www.wired.com/story/online-ad-targeting-does-work-as-long-as-its-not-creepy/

Personally, I hold the latter opinion. The targeted ads are nothing to fear because they do not change how I access and use digital media. Regardless of how many sunglasses ads I get after buying a new pair of Ray bands on Instagram, I can still like and comment on posts all the same. Plus, Information about what I have purchased or looked at online generally is not information that I hold near and dear to my heart so I am fine with advertising companies having it. While I recognize the importance and value of privacy, this issue does not have me worried about these things.

At the root of it all, people just want to know what they are giving up online. With scammers at an all-time high, the fear of identity theft is a very valid thing to experience. People feel like they can not know for sure who has their private information and what these unknown figures are going to do with it. However, with more transparency from these websites and companies, I believe the targeted ad system can be a very beneficial addition to the process of an online consumer.