Personalisation vs Privacy
In this blog I will try to explain the ongoing battle we are experiencing with the internet in which we prefer personalisation or privacy.
Right of the bat, I am really torn on this discussion and listening to different sides of each debate can sway me each time. However I feel Personalisation will win in the end. Let me know what you think by the end of this blog?
So what am I talking about? When using the internet today we are often greeted with a far more personal approach that we used to and in particular to sites we have used before. What happens is the website drops a cookie (small file) on your computer that captures information about you, your device and tons of other information such as the browser you are using, you location and where you came from to get to that page.
Most of the time you are probably not even aware of it.
The pros of these cookies is that it enables the site owner to provide a more personalised experience in the future as it gets to understand more about you. It is not just the cookies it can also be if you create an account. Either way its all about collecting data about you.
This is how Amazon then emails you and suggests purchases and even on the site, its all based on your previous purchase and browsing history.
Google does the same, when logged into a Google account and then preform a search it will give you personalised results based on what Google knows about you. If you want a true organic list of search results you need to log out completely and enable private browsing.
For me a non personalised internet can suck. I want sites to remember my user name and password so I dont have too. I want suggestions for new content and I want to feel like I am being treated like a valued customer. But most of all I want convenience.
Now the other side of the coin is this. Sometimes personalisation can become a poor experience when re-marketing adverts follow me round the internet for weeks on end.
As for privacy, I understand that all of the social networks and Google and countless others are collecting data on me and then doing god know what with it.
Its a scary thought when you think of what data your phone is collecting and then giving out to companies every minute of every day. They are selling this data for sure. But also its data about me, do I want these companies having all this information? My locations throughout the day. What sites I look at and how often, what I purchase and when.
Photos you post on some social media sites give away the location based on the file name. Yes the file name has co-ordinates that can tell some clever people where that photo was taken.
So what is best do you think? Now you understand that social media is not and will never be free and in fact you pay with your data. Think how much data you are giving to sites like Facebook everyday.
Does personalisation and convenience win? Do you even care? I imagine many don't. Let me know your thoughts?
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Author- Speaker - Consultant. Passionate about all things digital.