I was doing some last-minute online research for an overseas flight when it hit me – I’d forgotten to pack my neck pillow.  It’s hard enough to get a little rest on a plane, and small things like this make a difference.  Shortly after my packing epiphany, an ad for my exact same pillow showed up on the right of my screen.  I’m not entirely sure how it knew.  For that matter, I don’t even know what “it” is.

 Most of us are aware by now that our personal data is web-scraped, sold, traded, and otherwise gathered by folks who then use proprietary algorithms to determine everything from the largest home mortgage we can afford to our favorite brand of shampoo.  My grocery store app is always feeding me coupons for things I’ll probably end up wanting, and Amazon is quick to remind me what other shoppers like me are buying.  Marketing is big business – technically sophisticated, secretive, and sometimes dangerous.

 None of this is new, other than perhaps the tools and technologies in use.  Looking back at old advertisements will often bring a laugh owing to their sexism or other social prejudices.  Today we cringe at the ad where a smug husband watches his happy wife pushing the new vacuum cleaner he bought her for Christmas around the house.  While ads like this merely reflect a snapshot of the culture in which we lived, others are more insidious. <continue reading>