Ethics and Awareness

I understand why businesses online track the purchase history of their customers, and I understand why they want to collect demographic information about their customers: to save money. But this leads me to two things: ethics and awareness.

Businesses need to be open about how they track consumers, what information they are collecting, and what they intend to do with it. Even if it appears in the Terms and Conditions no one has time to read. I don’t even read them, but I know that they are there and that they should be. They are there to cover the company’s assets and to protect me. I will take the time to read them if I feel that a company is treating me or my privacy with anything less than respect.

Thus, my second point: awareness. No longer is the customer known for being passive or compared to sheep. Companies are aware that we are bombarded by copious amounts of advertising and marketing messages. We need to do our homework and cross-reference what we don’t believe. Consumers who voluntarily offer information without knowing what is being done with it or how to fix it if they get taken need to find someone who is tech-savvy who can help them.