Recently, an advertisement for a jacket appeared as I read the news on the Washington Post:

 

Wow, I thought, just my style.  I clicked through and checked it out.  Nice price.  Might just buy it.

Soon after, an ad for a pair of pants appeared.  Rugged travel pants – just my style.

Later that week, I was on CNN when I saw this ad:

 

Call me crazy, but the jacket, pants, and shoes look incredibly well coordinated.  They’d make a great new outfit.

On Facebook, YouTube, a site for one of my favorite rock bands, it continued:

Mind you, these ads starting showing up without me visiting the website first.  These are not remarketing ads.

They are new ads that happen to be beautifully targeted to my tastes.

I had a sudden epiphany.

The internet knows what style of clothes I like.

A Worldwide Web of Data

If you haven’t had a similar experience to mine with online advertising, you soon will.  If you are a regular user of Google, Facebook, YouTube – well, the internet as we know it – then you are surrendering something.

The internet is more of a two-way street than you may know.  Privacy is not what it was.  You’re living through a screen that’s also a window with a direct view into your life.

You didn’t really think all those services were free, did you?  Every “free” platform you use collects data on you.

Google and Facebook are the great data gathering entities of our era.  Everything you search, react to, follow, buy, like, click on, and watch is being saved.  These companies are amassing enough data on your interests, friends, hobbies, tastes, religious beliefs, political views, jobs, and buying habits that they can create an intimate portrait of your life.

This data is used to create increasingly personalized advertising that’s displayed to you online.

This personalization started with remarketing, which is still an important piece of it.  You visit a website, and ads related to the content you viewed start following you around the internet.

But online advertising isn’t about to wait for you to actually find the right websites.  As the platforms start amassing data on billions of people, the algorithms establish patterns.

At this point, it’s clear that Facebook and Google know I like outdoor sports and recreation in the mountains.  They know what I do for work, where I live, and what my family status is.

They know I’ve bought Chaco sandles, Kuhl pants, and Patagonia shirts online.

They’ve “typed” me.

And now they’re making assumptions about other clothes and shoes I might like.  These ads are like an extension of the “people who bought this also bought” feature on Amazon.

What’s really impressive, though, is what an incredible job they’re doing targeting these clothing ads to my tastes.  I actually like the types of shoes they’re showing me better than anything I’ve found through my own searches.

Uncanny, a bit disconcerting – but also intriguing.

I don’t really like shopping for clothes.  It’s not easy finding what feels right for me.  Frankly, it’s a chore.

If the internet can do that for me, I must admit I’d love it.  Not only a time saver, but I’d get clothes tailored, as it were, to my tastes.

Yes, I’m about ready to let the internet start dressing me.

And yet…

Am I giving up too much of my individuality?  What’s next?  Surely it will start targeting my music, hobbies, TV shows, tastes in beer, travel plans, and parenting philosophy.

What happens when I meet somebody who has been “typed” just like me?  Will he be wearing the same clothes, drinking the same beer, planning the same weekend?

Today, people use dating sites that let them create profiles so they can be matched with someone compatiable.  How long before these sites know you so well they can preemptively find the perfect partner?  Are we ready for the internet as matchmaker?

We are living in a watershed moment with regard to how humans live with technology.  A merger is happening, delighting us with convenience yet draped in an ominous, digitized shadow…

Are we giving up too much?

Oh, what the hell.  I’m buying the whole outfit!