This is an era where innovative
technologies hit the market on a regular basis. In fact, humans have been quite accustomed to the
technological changes that take place so frequently. Also, lives of
people have become too much dependent on these
modern innovative technologies. Be it internet, mobile smartphone, or television media, people
have become extremely intoxicated to using these devices.
With enormous advantages of modern
communication devices and internet, there is also some point of concern as well. Data breach,
security hacking, and unethical business practices through the help of modern technologies have become more
severe these days. Recently, Wall Street journal published an unethical business practice that is
making waves in the mobile communication market. The journal accused major online advertising
companies like Google for compromising the security settings of different iPhone as well Apple desktop
users who runs the safari browser in their devices.
Wall Street Journal not only accused
Google but also other major online advertising firms like Point Roll, Vibrant Media, and WPP that used some
specific code to trick the extremely popular web browser Safari. This allowed them to secretly monitor
the behavior of the iPhone users by bypassing default security settings that has been designed in some
particular manner to block such intrusions.
In fact, bypassing security settings is
not the correct approach to track user behavior or for understanding the commercial cycles. This attempt not
only kept most of the iPhone and Safari Browser users in dark, but it all questioned the overall
security and privacy policies of these notable advertisers. It can
also be recalled that Apple’s privacy
settings (default) definitely disallows any company to use cookies
for
tracking user behavior while using
different web enabled services. However, notable advertisers like Google and others never took any time
to think twice before breaching the security for mere commercial tracking purpose. And what for? To
achieve some commercial gains! It's surely a rubbish and insulting approach from these notable
advertisers. They should be sued for their conduct. Strong apology
from these advertisers is expected.
Well, an amazing fact is that till now
Google or any of the other advertisers have never pledged for an apology regarding their unprofessional
behavior. Isn't it funny? This means they will again carryout such activities in the near future. However,
they have disabled the secret tracking code once Wall Street published about their dirty activities,
but remained unapologetic. Instead, they tried to convince people with the fact that Wall Street
misunderstood their approach completely. In a public statement,
Google addressed that cookies used by them
were not for tracking any sort of public behavior. In fact, those cookies were not powerful enough to
collect any type of personal information. Other companies involved
in such security breach issues also
never admitted their guilt. Many of these advertisers said that they were totally unaware of such security
breach or any of the illegal activities.
There are many tech and web companies
that offer free products and then earns through online advertising. But, also remember that
these companies often try to act too smartly while trying to cross
the privacy line of clients to learn about
customer behavior. All for commercial gains, such approach may not help in creating a positive reputation
for that particular company. Breaching security is a serious offense and can result in legal initiatives.
About the author: Margaret is a blogger
by profession. She loves writing, reading and travelling. She is an avid golfer and answers how much to ship golf clubs by suggesting Shipsticks golf.
