As with everything else in life, if there is a way to abuse/take advantage of something, it will happen. For the most part our personal information was safe but as the world wide web advanced so did those who saw opportunities to take advantage of it. The number of marketing companies and advertising companies exploded. No longer did someone have to create a business and work in an office building, they could create one from the comfort of their own home. All they needed was access to the internet and a standard phone line and they were in business. Advertisers needed people to advertise to, marketeers saw that producers of consumer products needed to get their products noticed by the public and what was the one thing these producers of consumers products have? yep, customer data and what better way to get noticed by handing over that customer data to advertisers. So, marketing companies approach producers and manufacturers with fancy power point presentations of how they can make the company extra millions every year and the price for that, handing over their customer data to the marketing company who would find advertisers.
The problem for us joe public was that in the begining no one asked us if it was ok to trade our personal information, it was taken as granted that companies and businesses could and that is exactly what happened. This also saw the increase in data analytical companies who would also approach producers and manufacturers of consumer products with their own fancy power point presentations explaining how they could let these producers and manufactureres know everything about how their products are percieved by the buying public and how they are used by the buying public and again, no one asked us joe public if it was ok to use and trade our personal information.
Trading customers personal information became so common place that it became the norm and no one questioned it until joe public started getting unsolicited mobile phone calls and text messages, unsolicited emails from companies no one had heard of advertising their goods. The voice from joe public became so low that governments started to take notice but it was too late, all of our personal information was out there, being traded without a care in the world.
Because our persoanl information has been traded for so long without interference or hinderance from others, companies and businesses have felt they have a right to do as they wish with our personal information and when someone comes along to put blocks in place to prevent our personal information from being used, out comes these companies with complaints of bad business practices and all other types of complaints. Facebook and Google have done and still continue to do it and now the UK mobile phone networks are doing it.
Notice how they all talk from the same hymn sheet, 'implementing so n so will be bad for user experience'. They seem to forget one important fact which is that it is us the users, joe public that want these blocks put in place because we are fed up of companies and businesses abusing our personal information.
