People Are Spying On Me And There Is No Internet Privacy

Do you remember recently when Facebook announced that they were going to enhance our Facebook experience by targeting the ads you see when you’re on the site? Well, they are definitely in the thick of it now with their noses all in your business. They not only have a billion ads to throw in your face, but the ads have enough misspelled words to drive me crazy.

I noticed immediately upon implementing their new program, the ads dramatically changed when I went onto Facebook. Suddenly I was inundated with single men who supposedly sent me invitations that I could read if I clicked the ad. I didn’t click the ad and I wondered why I was seeing these ads since I’m not trying to meet men on dating sites.

Day after day, I kept seeing ads encouraging me to meet single men.

Time passed…

Out of the corner of my eye one day, I noticed a repeat of one of the guys on the ad so I saved the ad. I figured if I saw him again on the ad, I would compare it. Later in the week the same guy appeared in the ad, but this time he had a different name. As a matter of fact, all the men started repeating in the ads with different names than they had in the previous ads.

Trickery.

Actually, the ads were lies.

These men haven’t seen me. None of them have sent me an invitation of any kind.

The single men ads bombarded me with every page change. I could not get away from them. Not only was I constantly annoyed because I didn’t want to see single men ads, but the same men kept appearing with different names.

So this is what targeted Facebook ads are going to look like for me? If so, I decided that I would have a full on protest and make it my goal to get the single men ads off my page. However, after a month of the harassing ads and upon my thinking of the new plan, the ads took a dramatic turn.

I had started researching health articles about grain intolerance and the effect eating grain has on the body. Maybe Facebook doesn’t have any grain free ads, so they decided to grab another issue that affects women of my age…menopause. Day and night the ads were about hot flashes caused by menopause. Of course, at the same time there was the subtle reminder about single men. As if a woman with major hot flashes wanted to think about single men. (rolling my eyes)

I didn’t click any of the ads. I wasn’t going to give Facebook any leverage or encourage them to keep posting stupid ads for me. Every time I went on Facebook it felt like I was going to the mailbox and getting a ton of junk mail out.

Within a week the types of ads changed again. This time the subject matter for the ads was all over the place. There were ads about getting cash, heart attacks, heart disease, cholesterol and they even threw in an ad that was written in some language like Chinese. Does Facebook really think that I want to see a Chinese ad? This is their new way to have targeted ads that make my Internet experience richer?

Ummm…no.

I still didn’t click the ads. The next thing I knew, there was an onslaught of single men ads mixed with the health issue ads. Then one day I saw a familiar face with an ad asking me a question that I could finally answer affirmatively. It was a picture of Kenny Chesney and the ad asked me, “Do you like Kenny Chesney?”

Well, duh! Is Kenny Chesney one of the choices for the single men ads? If I click Kenny Chesney did he leave me an invitation to something?

Of course not!

Facebook ad after aggravating Facebook ad gets blasted on my Facebook side bar. There is no end to the lying Facebook ads. There is no end to the spying that Facebook is doing in order to generate ads that beckon me to click them.

Spying?

Yes!

Facebook gathers EVERY piece of information you put online and analyzes it. Then all the data Facebook collects about you is merged with the information that data collection companies have on you. Then they have a very complete profile of your shopping habits. This enables Facebook to target your ads.

Now my Internet experience goes something like this…

I log onto Facebook and see single men ads.

I check my mail, click on an email from a shoe company, a lingerie company and a car dealership.

Then when I go back to Facebook a few hours later, the Facebook ads are showing shoes, lingerie and new cars with great financing. Not only am I unable to surf the Internet privately, but I can’t read my emails in private either. AOL reads my emails and tells Facebook what they said so that Facebook can throw pertinent ads in my face all day and night.

There’s no Internet privacy because I’m being spied on better than a private investigator could spy.

I should have known it would be like this since I already knew how people listen in on cell phone and cordless phone conversations without too much of an effort. There is also the computer camera that is being enabled and used as a spy cam without your knowledge. Everyday there are new ways to spy on your private information. People install cameras on their shoes to look up your dress, in public toilets to watch you go to the bathroom and if you’re not careful they will go into your attic and set up a spy camera system that will leave nothing private when you’re at home.

What has happened to the world of technology? Just because the technology exists doesn’t mean it is permissible and ethical to use it to spy on every move you make inside and outside of your home.

I don’t know the solution to the invasion of privacy by companies that read my email, analyze your Internet usage, post your private information on websites that strangers can pay to download, and people who think it is okay to use cameras to see up your dress or watch you take a bath at home. All I know is that I’m not liking it and if we don’t start making laws that draw the line somewhere, we are going to find ourselves in a world that isn’t all that comfortable because nothing will be private except for the things you think and never speak.

Give them time. They will figure out how to scan your brain eventually and you won’t even have a private thought anymore.