A short chat yesterday with someone brought up a subject that got me chuckling to myself. While I do tend to be over cautious on the safe side of web identities in the past few years I have become more open than in prior years. I am very aware that with all the tracking that services like google and yahoo and social networks like facebook do the cyber powers certainly know just about anything and everything about this domain, my personal browsing habits, what sites I visited and how long I stayed there, what I watch on cable, who calls my cell and home phone (yeah i still have one of those land lines). It is concerning to myself (and I am not alone in this) how intrusive the government and private organizations have become – it really is 1984’s Brave New World.
What started me chuckling was in the short conversation we had (I know you know who you are LOL – so don’t take offense here) the person mentioned that someone visit ing their had been clicking on commenter s links on their blog) LOL since I had just done this a few days ago on their blog I started thinking well yeah DUH that is what people do. It is a great way to read other blogs, find something your read but don’t remember where . … I actually did this on several other blogs as I was working on the cleaning up of my reader – any way –
Then my squirrel cage brain started spinning. Seriously? With all the tracking going? Yeah I have one of those counter deals on the bottom of the blog that tracks how many visit the site, I have checked the traffic monitor thingy that WordPress has in the blog dashboard a few times just because I think it is funny that my top visit s come from a post written long ago about model ships. But that is it. In this case I am pretty sure I know why the person does this and it is not to spy but to monitor traffic in order to improve their hits to their blog to improve it’s readership and tailor their topics toward those who visit regularly .
Next thing I know I am logging into Google analytics to see what is new there. Oh my I can actually track just about anything and everything to do with who visited this blog, how they landed here, what they read, in what order . … and I had to ask myself why? It it necessary for a personal journal blog to give a crap about this visit stuff? I had forgotten that I even had this thing set up. I feel like I am now the privacy invader.
Domain Name: KMILYUN.COM
Was Created on…………..: 2003-01-12 01:12:04 GMT
It’s prior name shall remain undisclosed.
It is a subdomain of ???? LOL
It has a 73.33% New Visit hit rate (apparently the ship posts and pontoon boat posts) and a 26.67% Returning Visit rate (that would be my current readership folks from the looks of it.
Now why in the world do I need to pay attention to this? More importantly why do many blogs that are “personal” journals feel the need to know what posts I visit ed and where I clicked?
Is it not enough that the big services and the government are tracking us? If there were a way to not help them out with all the tracking stuff here it probably would just be a drop in the bucket as I don’t over estimate my nuisance value.
Well visit away!
Oh yeah if there is a particular topic you find interesting or a post you would like to read here I will do this old fashioned way – suggest a topic or just ask me in a comment while you visit!
I don’t think I take my blog seriously enough to check these things. There’s a line graph at the top of my dashboard that looks like stock market reports or sales meetings. When it dips really low, I think, “OK, no more talk about x, y, z.” And I don’t see anything wrong with accessing other blogs from the one you’re reading. That’s usually how I find good ones to read! Also, I’m so boring, no agency would want to track me!
Peace,
Muff
There was a time when I did pay attention to all the stats – like many things what I find important has changed along with many of my views on many subjects. It just surprised me how much detail is in some site statistic programs.
I suspect those who sell our info to advertisers do not find any of us “boring” and I know I do not find your blog so. 🙂
I don’t take much notice of my blog stats. What I do notice is that anything I have been searching on Google, shows up on ads on other people’s blogs (that have ads) and on facebook. Now that’s scary!
All part of the same processes. Creepier is how what I watch on television influences the ads on others blogs.More irritating to me is how I might be unsuspectingly supporting someone using a niche blog to make money. Google it . …
Do you have an “internet TV”?
Nope we have a bundled package so internet, phone, and Cable TV same company.
Jan – you’re right about the privacy invasion. And I’m with Karen. It bothers me when I’ve looked at products online and then seen those same things advertised on words with friends or on the sidebar of hotmail. I was just looking at a site that sells a panic pendant that works anywhere, not just in your home, and there was the ad about their cell phone at the end of my words with friends game. Gah!
I haven’t noticed a correlation between the tv we watch and ads online. But, now I’m going to see if there’s a connection. Thanks for heightening my paranoia! 🙂
It must be my job to crate further paranoia. KRP tends to set the cable to record all sorts of stuff I would never watch. The cable service has a suggest movies choice – to watch based on viewing habits. I think that is where the tailored ads come? It only happens on the cable companies main login page if I login. I tend not to login and use other programs for mail and net searches.
I can go to a cable TV channel and there is a record of all the calls we have made and received.