“Until you realize how easily it is for your mind to be manipulated. You remain the puppet of someone else’s game.” ― Evita Ochel
When you visit a website that uses cookies for the first time, a cookie is downloaded onto the device. This is whether it be a laptop, tablet or smartphone. The next time you visit that site, it checks to see if you share relevant cookies. The information contained in that cookie is then sent back to the site reflecting a similarity.The site will then register that you have been there before. It may possibly use this to tailor what pops up on the screen such as advertisements.
Cookies are used to track a user’s behavior online. These third party cookies provide marketers with your private information (without your knowledge). This can benefit online users as products which appeal to their consumer needs. They are revealed to the user without the need to search. But is this considered a persistent form of ‘virus” and an invasion of our privacy? Do we really want to see what appears?
WHAT CAN COOKIES REALLY DO?
Families share multiple accounts, computers, and browsers. Cookies have multiple sets of information being spread across this online activity. A key example of the negative impact that cookies can do is that although a user may go “back” but the state of their browser will not due to that acquisition. This can lead to unreliability, confusion, and manipulation by Web developers. For example, searching flights online. If a user creates a search then leaves it, their cookies are still kept with that online action. Therefore the next time a user comes to conduct the same search it has become manipulated with a higher expense. This is because there has been previous interest and the cookies know. Web developers are aware of this issue and implement measures to work towards their advantage. Taking a passive audiences actions and manipulating it to their benefit themselves.
Another key example is the way in which these cookies represent current news stories. The audience doesn’t realize that their news is fitted to their interests. Taking into account said interests, they choose the format. Certain articles are reflected onto the user first. If a group of people was to type the same thing there would be a difference. Their responses would be different to one another depending on their cookies.
Many don’t understand the real implications that cookies can have on their lives. The form of manipulation they use is so subtle. Users online sphere becomes distorted into their own personalized world. But is it a problem? Should we be worried? My answer is YES! We’re being manipulated through our the whole world morphing online. There needs to be a separation between the two. Otherwise, we as a society will slowly blend into one online.
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