Watch out! You're spied...

... and that's a good thing!

Today companies take more and more their customers into consideration. The more they know the better: what we buy, what we want, our behavior under certain circumstances...
The firms collect data to know if we can use their devices easily, if there's a market for their new product or what are our needs.

This informations allow the companies to have a data oriented way of taking decisions. Provided that the metrics are chosen wisely, these are the best decisions firms can make.

But, to get information firms spy everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I'm sure you know that statistics on "old" media such as TV and radio are provided thanks to sample groups. Obviously these guys know they're spied which could lead to a change in their behaviors.

But Internet allows exhaustive measures on web surfers' behavior. It's used a lot to improve web sites (ergonomics, user experience, conversion rate...), or to serve ads... Even on this small blog, Google is tracking you in order to provide you ads that match with you. I have access to data as well (number of visitors, time spent on each page, even where you are!), so that I can guess which article you read.

Last week, someone in my company sent an e-mail asking for business cards. As soon as he clicked on the button, Google served him an ad for a printer... Yes, Google reads your messages! Do you thing that this is frightening? Maybe it is... but it's valuable as well. I'd rather let Google's robot follow me and have ads that could be useful for me than have to see those stupid ads for diapers or make-up.

I mentioned Google a lot, but it's definitely not the only spy out there. These feedbacks that are possible on the Web are so valuable for companies that I really think that in a few decades all communication will be either made through the web (imagine on-line TV: you can watch you're favorite TV show the whenever you want... which means when it's released... damn consumerist society) or the other media will have to develop tools to get feedbacks (Google will listen to your phone calls... wait... hopefully not!)

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